'My father was on the flight': Jaishankar opens up about 1984 Air India hijack

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday broke silence on the recent controversy around the Netflix's recent series 'IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack' and recalled another hijack story of 1984 in which his father was on the flight.

Jaishankar, who was addressing Indian diaspora in Geneva, said he hasn't seen the series but added that the "film guys don't make the government look good".

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Recalling another Air India plane hijack Jaishankar said, "In 1984, there was a hijack. I was a very young officer and was part of the team which was dealing with it. My son was a few months old and my wife used to work. So it was my day to go back home and feed him lunch."


"So I rang up my mother to tell her said 'look I am unable to come, there's a hijack'. It was then that I discovered that my father was on the flight," Jaishankar added.

On the behind the scenes as to what goes inside the government rooms Jaishankar said, "Fortunately, no body got killed but it could have ended up wrongly. And it was interesting because on 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 were pressing the government for the hijack. So actually I had a very unique window into the problem."

On the Netflix series row, Jaishankar said, "Movie guys don't make the government look good, then no one would look their movie. The hero is suppose to look good, not you. So I think you got to accept that."

The minister is on a two-day visit to Geneva.