Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 29, 2006
Introduction: 'By giving wide coverage to
terrorist strikes, we play into their hands'
Foreign secretary Shyam Saran on Monday added
to the BJP's misery when he said the decision to release Harkat-ul-Ansar terrorist
Maulana Masood Azhar (who later founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed) in exchange
for the hostages of flight IC-814 hijacked to Kandahar lacked "sober
analysis and was taken under media pressure".
Saran's remarks come two days after parliament
was plunged into a crisis on the last day of the monsoon session over this
issue. BJP ducked for cover as treasury benches shouted slogans against the
party over the remarks of former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah who said that
former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy L K Advani had pressured him
to release Azhar.
"The government failed to make a sober
analysis of the situation and handle it in the manner that it should have
been done," Saran said here.
The foreign secretary said media coverage
complicated the decision-making and gave a burst of oxygen to the hijackers.
He said the government was in a bind as the media had played up the incident
out of proportion. The plight of the passengers and their relatives did not
leave much option for the NDA government of the time, he added.
Saran advised media persons not to play up
terrorist activities. "By giving wide coverage to terrorist strikes,
we play into their hands. This is the hype they are looking for," he
said.
