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Aircraft Hijacking of 1978
Posted by Aditya Kuvalekar on November 18, 2011
A friend posted something related to Indira Gandhi and an airplane hijack in 1978 on Facebook. The post seemed propagandist in nature to be honest. These days there are so many things floating around about the Gandhi family and their crimes that it’s hard to discern between the truth and fiction. Out of curiosity I googled a bit and found a Wikipedia page (Yes, a Wiki page!) that says
December 20, 1978: Two Hindus, Devendra Nath Pandey and Bhola Nath Pandey hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-410. They demanded the immediate release of Indian National Congress party leader Indira Gandhi who was imprisoned at that time on the charges of fraud and misconduct. Later, they were awarded with party tickets for this act by the Indira Gandhi government in 1980 such that Devendra Nath Pandey rose to become a minister in the government of most populous state of India, Uttar Pradesh. This case was also mentioned by Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale to justify his claim regarding the hypocrisy of the Indian government.
This intrigued me further and I searched a bit more. Here’s more on the heroes of that story.
I will leave you with a quote from this book by Devendra Nath Pandey on the hijack incident-
“Yeh to deewanagi thi. Gandhi family ke liye deewanagi ki had tak samarpan tha” (It was an obsession and devotion to the Gandhi family”) Also, hijacking was not mentioned a crime then.
Marvelous!
Atanu Dey said
Aditya, thanks for the post. Most interesting. I did not know this and I am sure that 99.999999 percent of Indians don’t know this. This state of affairs have to be fixed.
Atanu Dey on India's Development » Blog Archive » Hijack a Plane, Get Rewarded by Govt of India said
[...] [Hat tip: Aditya Kuvalekar.] [...]
Aditya Kuvalekar said
Indeed Atanu. The state of affairs must be fixed. It’s quite heartening to see your blog. More and more people should read it.