Jaswant should apologise for 'misleading' statements

New Delhi, Aug 3: The controversial book of former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh figured in the Lok Sabha today with two senior members from the treasury benches demanding an apology from the BJP leader for certain ''misleading and irresponsible'' statements in his book regarding the country's safety and national security.

Congress' Madhusudhan Mistry demanded that Mr Singh, who is the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, should tender an open apology to the nation for ''misleading'' the people with regard to the exchange of the passengers of the hijacked Indian airlines aircraft for proven terrorists in Kandahar in 1999 when he was Foreign Affairs Minister.

''He has still not made clear if the 200 million dollars demanded as ransom by the hijackers of the flight were paid. If the ransom was paid, he should make public how did he get money for this,'' he said, pointing out that Mr Singh himself admitted in the book ''Call of Honour'' that the cabinet was divided on the issue of his going to Kandahar to negotiate with the kidnappers, he wanted to know how did Mr Singh then reach there for negotiations.

Devendra Yadav (RJD) also demanded apology from Mr Singh for misleading the country through his ''irresponsible'' statement about the presence of a mole in the PMO when P V Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister.

''It was unfortunate that he had made a baseless allegation which involved nuclear and national security issues,'' he said during Zero Hour.

UNI

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