Brushing aside BJP's dictat to its leaders not to go public on goings-on in the party, its senior leader Arun Shourie has sought to reopen the old wounds about the Kandahar hijack episode involving L K Advani.
Referring to Advani maintaining that he did not know about various aspects of release of terrorists in return for safety of passenges in the plane, Shourie says in his latest book that "Jaswant Singh disclosed facts that put Advani's account in question".
"Brajesh Mishra set out further facts that nailed Advani's version even deeper," he says in the book. Mishra, Shourie argues, had brought about the central question: "How is it that the plane was not disabled as it stood on the tarmac for 45 minutes in Amritsar?"
"Yashwant Sinha endorsed what Mishra stated. With these statements, four members of the Cabinet Committee on Security, excluding Vajpayee, all four other than Advaniji had called Advani's version in question, for George Fernandes had already said that Advani had perhaps forgotten that he had participated in the meetings at which each of these decision had been taken", Shourie says in the book.
Shourie slammed party spokesmen for calling Mishra's statement as "unfounded, unfortunate and politically motivated" and that "he is not a member of the BJP".
"What had the veracity or otherwise of Mishra's statement to do with his being or not being a member of the BJP? He was the national security adviser at the time as well as the principal secretary to the prime minister. He had participated in every single meeting and decision relating to Kandahar," said Shourie.
