Why Vajpayee govt chose to swap 3 terrorists with 160 passengers of IC 814 two decades ago

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999, a much-anticipated evening before the New Millennium.

India’s then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh didn’t think he would be spending that evening on a flight to Kandahar, Afghanistan of all places.

But this was no ordinary flight. Accompanying him onboard were three terrorists, who had been released from Indian prisons just hours earlier.

The reason — they were part of a swap deal for 160 passengers and crew members on board the Indian Airlines Flight (IC 814) that had been hijacked eight days earlier.

Just how did the government of India allow the exchange of terrorists for the hostages?

I seek to evaluate the case of the hijack of flight IC 814 through the lens of ‘group decision making’ and the ‘rational actor model’, looking closely at the issue of ‘time’ in crucial high stress national security decision-making.

Background

It’s Christmas Eve (24 December 1999) and passengers are in a festive spirit as they board the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to New Delhi, India.

It’s a short, routine one hour and forty minutes flight, but it would never reach its final…