NEW DELHI: Indian premier Chandra Shekhar has said Congress-I president Rajiv Gandhi knew about the move to allow refueling of U.S. military planes in India, but he (Shekhar) did not disclose this because I cannot stoop to that level.
Asked why he did not say that he had consulted Gandhi before permitting refueling, Chandra Shekhar said:] told Rajiv that this was not expected of him. When you knew something, then how you can react like this, He just kept quiet.
In an interview to the Sunday magazine, Shekhar said Gandhi raised the refueling issue as he thought it would bring him Muslim support,
Without knowing what was going to happen in the gulf, he made his policy, he said.
He accused the Janata Dal leader, Inder Kumar Gujral, of having told Indians in Iraq-occupied Kuwait to support President Saddam Hussein.
As foreign minister, Gujral kept doing things like this, In the case of Nepal, a few hours before the king gave in to the demands of the pro-democracy movement, he declared that the moment had fizzled out, Shekhar added.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 19, 1991
