In a surprising revelation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday said that his father, a former senior diplomat, was on a hijacked flight in 1984 adding that he had a unique window on “both sides” in such situations – the perspective of family members and those in the government.
Jaishankar was answering a question during a community event in Geneva when he was asked about the recently released television series on the hijacking of IC814 in 1999. Jaishankar denied to comment on the series, saying that it would not be correct as he had not watched it.
However, he shared another experience of hijacking which was from 1984. He told the audience how as a young officer, he was part of the team dealing with the hijack situation in 1984. He elucidated that on the one hand, he was dealing with hijacking while on the other, he was part of the group of families putting pressure on the government. Jaishankar's father K Subrahmanyam was an IAS officer.
What did Jaishankar say?
Minister Jaishankar said, “In 1984 there was a hijacking. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team which was dealing with it. I rang up my mother, actually, to tell her, ‘Look, I can't come. There's a hijacking,” he said. “And then I discovered, my father was on the flight. The flight ended up in Dubai. It's a long story, but fortunately, nobody got killed. It could have ended as a problem,” he added.
“And it was interesting because on the one hand, I was part of the team which was working on the hijacking. On the other hand, I was part of the family members who are pressing the government for the hijacking. So actually, I have that very unique window on both sides, in that sense of the problem,” he added.
“So, often these are situations and movie guys don't make the governments look good. The hero is supposed to look good. Then nobody would watch the movie and you got to accept that,” he commented, evoking peals of laughter from the audience.
1984 hijacking
Notably, an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked from Pathankot and taken to Dubai on July 5, 1984. After over 36 hours, 12 pro-Khalistani hijackers surrendered to authorities and released all 68 passengers and six crew members unharmed.
(With PTI Inputs)
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