A survivor’s story as instant history

IC814 Hijacked!

By Flt. Engr. Anil K. Jaggia and Saurabh Shukla

Lotus Books (Roli Books), 2000

IC-814 had many firsts to its credit. It was the first international flight to have been hijacked in over half a century of civil aviation history in Nepal (there was a hijacking of a small domestic aircraft in the Panchayat period). The taking of the Indian airlines Kathmandu-Delhi flight also became the first incident of its kind in the history of international aviation which led to the suspension of all flights by a commercial airline to the'culpable' country.

IC-814's was also the first made for-the-media hijack drama of the Subcontinent, and it was played long and loud — with many take offs and landings and then a lonely tarmac in Kandahar— much to the delight of the Indian satellite channels. Indeed, the purveyors of satellite media turned the ordeal into a commercial event akin to an extended Indo-Pakistan test series, and Zee News in particular transformed it into a soap opera. Even traditional media —leaflets and wall-posters — were brought into action to berate the country where the IC 814 originated.

With so many firsts to its credit, IC-814 badly deserved a book. And a chronicler to turn the eight-day drama into instant-history. It has found one in the twosome of Flight Engineer Anil K. Jaggia and self professed 'investigative reporter' Saurabh Shukla.

The presentation begins promisingly enough, giving the inside view of the aircraft that was hijacked while all of us were watching it on TV from the outside. The first chapter opens with dramatic dialogue, and one settles down to read the book with healthy anticipation. But it does not take long to realize that this is no 'inside story'. The book is merely the ramblings of someone who happened to be inside. Investigative journalist Saurabh Shukla's academic achievements as presented in the dust jacket may be impressive, but it is difficult to trace their imprint in the text. In this collation of published newspaper reports,there is very little evidence of any investigative reporting, informed analyses or creative presentation.

The book ends up as nothing more than a racy mix of selective memory and regurgitated media reports. Of the two authors, the ure of the reporter is as eloquent as the success of the raconteur. The flight engineer's recollections of events at Raja Sansi Airport of Amritsar help put the blame for the extended nature of the hijack drama squarely on the shoulders of those at the helms of air-security in New Delhi. Unless Jaggia's experiences are grossly exaggerated, it appears that the Crisis Management Group (CMG) of the Indian government is an elephant that takes its own time to stand up, and the tail of the pachyderm —the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) —is incapable of flicking even a fly off its body.

Despite enough hints from American intelligence about something being afoot as the millennium turned, the Indian establishment seems to have failed to warn the airport security at Kathmandu, through the usual channels of course. Shukla, the reporter, should have raked the muck on those who were apparently sleeping on their jobs, or perhaps gambling at the local casino in Kathmandu, but he chooses to rely on the official explanations instead. As yet again proven by Shukla's lack of initiative-taking, the investigations by unprofessional media hacks in Delhi, when it comes to national security and foreign policy, stops at the doormat of South Block.

It still rankles Kathmandu's analysts that the whole hijacking incident was 'hijacked' by a commercial news-channel ('Z') recklessly chasing viewership to surge ahead of its competition ('Star'). By constantly airing the agonies of grieving relatives, it virtually closed the options available to the government negotiators. The authors don't touch this can of worms either, although they do concede that even the CMG was relying on media reports rather than its own sources for up-to-date information on the hijacked flight. In an environment of increasingly insecure air travel, the question as to why "Indian Airlines has the dubious distinction of having had the most hijackings of its aircrafts in the world" does indeed cry for attention. Of course, the authors do not even come close to attempting an answer. The fact is that India is a large country, so the law of probabilities alone indicates more hijackings. Also, India is a country with numerous dissatisfied communities, among whom some misguided 'youths' are bound to at some point or the other think of a dramatic and media attracting hijack.

It is only in the final chapter that IC-614: Hijacked! even attempts to dissect the 'Blunders Galore': "The IC-814 hijack… points to the need of re-examining the entire contingency plan [of the government] to avoid a bungle as costly as Amritsar that proved to be the turning point in the hijacking of the aircraft." But it is too much to expect analysis beyond this.

This book suffers from all the pitfalls of producing instant history, published as it was in a rush before the public memory of the hijack faded. While there is some description of the mood of the hostage-passengers inside that unfortunate Airbus fuselage, and of the tactics of the hijackers, there is minimal background information about the hijackers, their mission, or the significance of their demands. While it does attempt to explain the government's inaction, the authors do not seek to explain why the hijackers did what they did. There is no speculation about the impact the incident may have on the relationship between the countries involved — the relations with a widely reviled (in India) Nepal, or a Taliban Afghanistan with which New Delhi was forced into an embrace on the Kandahar tarmac.

The best way to tackle this book is to take it as drama. At that level, it is quite readable, with its simple language and dynamic presentation. This is a book of the television age for South Asia, pre-digested, which neither fires the imagination nor inspires contemplation. Shukla and Jaggia have produced a book that is the perfect reading for an airplane flight, hopefully one that will not be skyjacked.