This was long overdue but the timing couldn’t be more appropriate. A day before the three Indian hostages safely return home after a gruelling 42 days of captivity in Baghdad, National Security Advisor J N Dixit has said that the UPA Government is working to frame a ‘‘policy’’ on tackling hostage situations. Its cornerstone: the principle of ‘‘no negotiations.’’ ‘‘The Government is undertaking a macro-level exercise for formulating such a policy. It may be a declaration of intent for which Parliament will be taken into confidence,’’ he told The Indian Express tonight. He said that besides himself, M K Narayanan, the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor on internal security, would be engaged in formulating the policy which has the backing of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Various ideas, he said, had already been put forth on the subject and the ‘‘no-negotiations’’ policy which, at present, only three countries subscribe to, USA, China and Israel, has been examined by the PMO team. He said ‘‘no negotiations’’ with hostage-takers would be the basic principle behind the proposed policy with, of course, related aspects like subsequent action and assessment of captors’ capabilities. Giving his first reaction on the release of the three Indian truck drivers in Baghdad, Dixit said the Government ‘‘succeeded’’ because of a combination of three things: ‘‘correct assessment of the motivation and capabilities of the captors as well as of the options before us.’’ Truckers land today, may also land govt jobs
