Jaishankar’s father was aboard hijacked aircraft in 1984

LAHORE: Due to arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday (today), the incumbent Indian Foreign Secretary Subramanyam Jaishankar’s illustrious late father, Krishnaswamy Subramanyam (1929-2011), was aboard his country’s hijacked plane on August 24, 1984.
The hijacked plane was first forced to land in Lahore, then flown to Karachi and onwards to Dubai, where all passengers were released without any untoward incident taking place. The then UAE defence minister had negotiated with the hijackers the release of the Indian Airlines passengers.
The late international strategic affairs analyst and chairman of India’s Joint Intelligence Committee, K. Subramanyam, who was on the editorial board of “The Times of India” when India had conducted its 1998 “Shakti Tests,” was incidentally among the 100 passengers aboard the hijacked flight. About half a dozen young hijackers had demanded that the Indian Airlines jetliner, on a domestic flight from Chandigarh to Srinagar with 100 odd passengers and crew members on board, be flown to the United States.
This hijacking incident had taken place less than three months after the June 3 to 8, 1984 Indira Gandhi-led “Operation Blue Star,” which was an Indian military offensive aimed at establishing control over the Harmandir Sahib Complex (Golden Temple) in Amritsar.
While key Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was killed along with hundreds of other revolutionaries during the operation, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the ensuing riots across India.
Four months after the Indian military operation, on October 31, 1984, premier Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, in what is viewed as an act of vengeance.The late K. Subrahmanyam is mostly identified as the key ideological champion of India’s nuclear programme, which had begun with the country’s first ‘peaceful’ Smiling Buddha nuclear test in 1974 and had culminated with the 1998 series of weapons tests, both in Rajasthan.
(References: Stephen P. Cohen’s book “India: An Emerging power,” a report appearing in “The Indian Express” and J. N. Dixit’s book “India-Pakistan in war and peace”)Late K. Subrahmanyam was appointed the Convenor of India’s first National Security Council Advisory Board in 1998 and Chairman of the Kargil Review Committee in 1999.
The Kargil Inquiry Commission of 1999 was set up by the Indian government to analyse the perceived Indian intelligence failures associated with the Kargil War.His report had led to a large-scale restructuring of Indian intelligence.The Committee was also embroiled in controversy for indicting Brigadier Surinder Singh of the Indian Army for his failure to report enemy intrusions in time, and for his subsequent conduct.
Many press reports questioned or contradicted this finding and claimed that Singh had in fact issued early warnings that were ignored by senior Army commanders and, ultimately, higher government functionaries.
Some chapters and all annexures, however, were deemed to contain classified information by the government and not released.Late Subramanyam later wrote that the classified information was related to the development of India’s nuclear weapons programme and the roles played by Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and V.P. Singh.
(Reference: The July 1, 2001 edition of “The Hindu”)