Congress gets new ammo against Advani after Blackwill revelations

New Delhi, Mar 28 (UNI) The Congress Party today said the statement of former US Ambassador Robert Blackwill contradicting the reference that BJP leader L K Advani had made about him in his book, had exposed the lies in the "My Country, My Life" written by the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.

"The book should have been titled 'My Country, My Life, My Lies," AICC Spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told mediapersons, pointing out the statement of Mr Blackwill that he was teaching at Harvard in 1999, when Mr Advani had claimed in his book that he had contacted him to secure US help during the crisis relating to the hijack of Indian airlines aircraft in Kandahar by Kashmiri terrorists. Mr Blackwill said in a television interview that he had come to india as US Ambassador in August 2001.

"This shows that the self-serving book of Mr Advani is a bundle of lies and conractions," he said.

Referring to a television interview in which former Defence Minister and NDA Convener George Fernandes had said that it was a joint decision to send the then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to Kandahar in Afghanistan to secure the release of 160 passengers on board the hijacked Indian airlines aircraft in liew of release of three Kashmiri terrorists, Mr Ahmed said "it is for them to decide who is lying and who is not lying." Mr Advani, on the other hand, said in his autobiography and subsequent interviews that he was not consulted about Mr Singh accompanying the terrorists and he came to know when the minister actually got onto the plane to Kandahar. Mr Advani was the Minister in charge of Home Affairs then.

He said the autobiography of Mr Advani was nothing but a self-serving exericise besides showing leaders like A B Vajpayee in poor light.

On the admission of Mr Advani in the book that he had a meeting with Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh to abort Ms Gandhi becoming Prime Minister in 1998, Mr Ahmed said "there should be some standard in politics." UNI SH VD GC1825