IC-814 hijack: Chidamabaram defends NDA

Home Minister P Chidamabaram said he too might have done what the BJP-led NDA did during the IC-814 hijacking and it was not easy to predict how a decision-maker would behave in a certain situation, reports HT.

Home Minister P Chidamabaram on Wednesday said he too might have done what the BJP-led NDA did during the IC-814 hijacking and it was not easy to predict how a decision-maker would behave in a certain situation.

HT Image

“It is easy to criticise, but difficult to take decisions,” he said at a function in the capital, asked whether the government would adopt a “no negotiation policy” with terrorists.

“I can’t say. I really can’t say. How would I have behaved if families of 150 people came to me and pleaded for the lives of their loved ones,” the home minister said. The decision of the then NDA government to release terrorists in exchange of passengers of the hijacked IC-184 plane remains a point of criticism for the ruling Congress to which Chidamabaram belongs.

“If one takes ten decisions, one or two may go wrong. Show me a man who has not taken a wrong decision and I will show you a man who has taken no decision ever,” Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram said as home minister he had resolved to take decisions unmindful of what others felt or said. “I have been 50 days in the office. There is another 100 days to go for this government. I do not look over my shoulder all the time. Let my decisions be judged by the people after they are taken,” he said.