EDITOR'S NOTE

The hijack of Delhi bound flight of Indian Airlines IC-814 flying from Kathmandu last Friday has added another sorry chapter to the seven month old government of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Flippant as usual, Bhattarai missed no time to condemn his subordinate airport officials for the "serious security lapse" and suspended them all. He did not think that neither he nor his concerned ministers had any responsibility for what has happened. They are there only to eat the plums. The lower staffs must take all the blames for all that goes wrong. A very senior police offices on condition of anonymity confided to this scribe that he had heard rumors of this kind of happenings a few months back and reported the matter to the concerned authorities. Since a very large sum of money was involved, the rumor goes, the hardened criminals in the government chose to ignore the reports. The formation of Bhattarai government seven months back must have emboldened the hijackers. Because of rampant political corruption international gangsters have found it easier to use Nepal as their launching pad. With the corrupt politicians in and out of the government and with a prime minister who will defend all criminals if they are his supporters, they could not have found a safer haven to ply their nefarious trade. No wonder they chose Kathmandu to hijack a plane.

Bhattarai is allergical to Nepalese press. He thinks they are not only his enemies, they are even devoid of patriotic feelings. That's the reason he prefers to talk to his friendly media only. Since the Nepalese media is well aware of his worth they can afforded to ignore him. This has been clearly illustrated by the statement of Indian envoy to Nepal who went out of his way to mitigate the damaging effect of the statement by Prime Minister Bhattarai. This hijack episode should have been utilized by Bhattarai to quit on moral grounds. But his sycophants would not let him do it.

Although belated Foreign Minister Ram Saran Mahat has taken the right decision to implore U.N. Secretary-General to use his good offices to solve the hijack problem. The eight Nepalese hostages and their families were getting frustrated that their government had become totally indifferent to their plight. This latest, step must have revived their spirits. Mahat's defence of the security system at Tribhuwan airport unlike that of the Prime Minister's reflects diplomatic maturity and Statesmanship. Whatever the reality, no patriotic person denudes his country before the world.

* * *

Hijacking of an airplane is nothing new. This has happened all over the world before and this may happen anywhere hereafter. But trying to generate security phobia by any media could only become counter-productive , I.S.I is not the only intelligence agency active in Nepal. One should not forget that there are other intelligence agencies also equally active. Why was the plane all owed to take off from Amritsar? It would have been much easier to deal with the hijacker from there. Everybody makes mistakes. Trying to hurt the national pride by blowing up a lapse will only generate bitterness. The sooner this is realized the better.

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