The curious case of Hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC-410: The Indira Connection

The Curious case of Hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC-410: The Indira Connection 

The story goes back to 20 December 1978, when two friends Bholanath Pandey and Devendra Pandey hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC 410 from Lucknow to Delhi carrying 132 passengers.



“The Emergency” is referred to the period of 21 months from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977, when PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency across the country due to alleged “internal disturbance and officially issued by the then President , Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed 

But the real reason behind “the Emergency” was the Allahabad High Court verdict of the 1975 case “Indira Gandhi vs. Raj Narain” under which she was found guilty of electoral malpractices and election victory in Rae Bareilly was declared “null and void” and she was barred from the elections. To continue staying in power, Indira declared a state of Emergency in India, jailed opposition leaders, journalists, without any reason. Indira also amended the constitution and forcibly introduced the word 'secular' in it. 

Indira was held accountable for her crimes by the Janata Party government. 

The hijacking was carried out with the intention 

1.   to get Indira Gandhi released from jail while getting all criminal cases against her and Sanjay Gandhi withdrawn. 

2.   demand for the Janata Party Government at the Centre to tender its resignation

After a few hours of negotiations,the father of one of the hijackers arrived at the airport and talked to his son over the wireless and the two men surrendered themselves in front of the media to waiting authorities shouting pro Indira Gandhi slogans.

Indira Gandhi was back in power in 1980 as the troubled Janata Party coalition fell apart in just 3 years.

During her subsequent reign, the case against both of the hijackers were dropped and they were rewarded with the tickets in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.

Surprisingly, both of them won the elections in 1980. Bholanath served as a Congress MLA from 1980 to 1985 while Devendra Pandey remained MLA for two consecutive terms.

Bholanath unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections from Salempur in 1991,1996, 1999, 2004, 2009 ,2014

Apart from this Bholanath became the General Secretary of the Youth Congress and secretary of Indian National Congress and Devendra, on the other hand, served as the general secretary of UPC.

Can there be any clearer and simpler case of quid pro quo where people who committed such gruesome crimes have been rewarded and inducted into the government?

This is just another way, congress supports terrorists and murderers* for its own vested interests. 

*(Congress helped Bhopal Gas tragedy CEO Warren Anderson run away from the country).