External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday revealed that his father was on a hijacked plane in 1984 and said he had the unique opportunity to see the viewpoint of “both sides” – family members and those in government – in such situations.
Mr Jaishankar was responding to a question about the recently released television series on the hijacking of IC-814 in 1999, during a community event in Geneva.
Mr Jaishankar told the audience how as a young officer, he was part of the team that handled a plane hijacking situation, while on the other hand, he was also part of a group of families that put pressure on the Government.
During the Q&A session after his address to the Indian community, a member of the audience asked the Minister about his comments on the recently released series on Netflix, ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’, which he said “showed the bureaucracy and the government in a bad light in handling the hijacking.” Denying that he had not watched the series, Mr Jaishankar revealed his personal connection to the hijacking incident.
“In 1984, there was a hijacking. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team that was handling the case. I called my mother and told her, ‘Look, I can’t come. There’s a hijacking,'” he said, adding that it was now his turn to go home and feed his young son as his wife had also gone to work.
“And then I found out that my father was also on that plane. The plane stopped in Dubai. It’s a long story, but luckily, no one died. This could have become a problem,” he said.
On 5 July 1984, an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked from Pathankot and flown to Dubai. After more than 36 hours, the 12 pro-Khalistan hijackers surrendered to authorities and all 68 passengers and six crew members were released without harm.
Mr Jaishankar was an IFS officer and became a minister after retirement. His father K Subrahmanyam was an IAS officer and regularly commented on strategic issues.
He added, “And it was interesting because on the one hand, I was part of the team that was working on the kidnapping. On the other hand, I was one of the family members who were pressuring the government about the kidnapping. So really, I have a very unique window into both sides, in that sense, of the problem.”
“Often such situations happen and the film makers don’t show the government in a good light. The hero should look good. Then nobody will watch the film and you have to accept that,” he remarked, leading to laughter from the audience.
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