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.’’
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Truckers land today,
may also land govt jobs
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• The three Indian hostages Sukhdev Singh, Antaryami Bains and Tilak Raj will arrive in New Delhi at dawn on Friday
• Govt may give them monetary compensation and possibly employment or help in finding work
• Truckers have received monetary compensation from Kuwait & Gulf Link Transport Company (KGL)
• Crisis Management Group met on Thursday to work out the procedures the truckers would have to go through after they land
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He said that the constant feedback New Delhi was receiving from its envoys, Brij Bhushan Tyagi and Talmiz Ahmed, proved indispensable in resolving the crisis.
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Giving details of the behind-the-scenes that went on, Dixit said that the Crisis Management Group (CMG) held two or even three meetings a day to monitor developments. He admitted that all through the crisis, the Government activated its contingency plan for evacuating Indians working in Iraq and kept a fleet of aircraft ready for the purpose.
Comparing the resolution of this crisis with the fallout of the release of Kashmiri militants by the NDA Government after the hijack of IC-814, Dixit said that ‘‘capitulation’’ before hostage-takers had disastrous results. ‘‘Human lives are important but if you compromise once, you can be victimised again and again’’ he said. ‘‘Maulana Masood Azhar was released by the Indian Government and in my opinion, he alone has been responsible for killing 400-500 persons after that.’’
