“Discovered My Father Was On Flight”: S Jaishankar Recalls IC-814 Hijack

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday revealed that his father was on a hijacked flight in 1984 and said he had a unique window on “both sides” in such situations – the perspective of family members and those in the government.

Mr Jaishankar was answering a question during a community event in Geneva about the recently released television series on the hijacking of IC-814 in 1999.

Mr Jaishankar told the audience how as a young officer then, he was part of the team dealing with the hijack situation on the one hand and on the other, he was part of the group of families putting pressure on the government.

During the question and answer session after his address to the Indian community, a member of the audience asked the Minister about his comments on the recently released series ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’ on Netflix, which he said, showed “the bureaucracy and the government dealing with hijacking in poor light.” With a disclaimer that he has not watched the series, Mr Jaishankar went on to reveal his personal connection with the hijacking incident.

“In 1984 there was a hijacking. I was a very young officer. I was part of the team which was dealing with it. I rang up my mother, actually, to tell her, ‘Look, I can’t come. There’s a hijacking,” he said elaborating how it was his turn to go home and feed his young son as his wife too was working.

“And then I discovered, my father was on the flight. The flight ended up in Dubai. It’s a long story, but fortunately, nobody got killed. It could have ended as a problem,” he added.

On July 5, 1984, an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked from Pathankot and taken to Dubai. After more than 36 hours, 12 pro-Khalistani hijackers surrendered to authorities and released all 68 passengers and six crew members unharmed.

Mr Jaishankar was an IFS officer and became a minister after his retirement. His father K Subrahmanyam was an IAS officer and a regular commentator on strategic issues.

“And it was interesting because on the one hand, I was part of the team which was working on the hijacking. On the other hand, I was part of the family members who are pressing the government for the hijacking. So actually, I have that very unique window on both sides, in that sense of the problem,” he added.

“So, often these are situations and movie guys don’t make the governments look good. The hero is supposed to look good. Then nobody would watch the movie and you got to accept that,” he commented, evoking peals of laughter from the audience.