Yashwant Sinha says Mamata Banerjee offered herself as hostage in exchange for 1999 Kandahar flight passengers

Banerjee was serving as a Union Cabinet Minister then.

While joining TMC, Sinha said: "Mamata Banerjee had offered to go to Kandahar in 1999 and submit herself as a hostage for terrorists in return for the lives of passengers onboard the IC-814 aircraft that was hijacked. You don't need a 56-inch chest to be a patriot."

Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and an ex-Finance Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Yashwant Sinha, on Saturday joined the Trinamool Congress days ahead of the commencement of West Bengal elections.

Sinha joined the Trinamool Congress, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in presence of party leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Subrata Mukherjee, Derek O'Brien and Dr. Santanu Sen.

Joining the party, Sinha, who is known to be the critic of the Narendra Modi government, said, "Today the country is going through an unprecedented phase. The present government is not following the democratic values. The strength of a democracy lies in the strength of the institutions. Almost all institutions including the judiciary have been weakened now."

"At this hour, all opposition political forces need to come together. A very crucial election is going to be held in Bengal. There is no doubt that the Trinamool Congress is going to get a thumping majority but we need to make it even bigger and send a message from Bengal that the undemocratic ways won't be further tolerated," said the 83-year old politician.

In West Bengal, the Trinamool has locked horns with the BJP, under whose government Banerjee was the Railway Minister during Vajpayee era.

The state polls will be held in eight phases between Mar 27 and Apr 29.
On Dec 24, 1999, Indian Airlines flight IC-184 from Kathmandu to New Delhi with 174 passengers and an 11-member crew on board was hijacked. It was taken to Kandahar in the then Taliban controlled Afghanistan. The passengers and crew members were released only after Pakistani terror group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen forced India to release terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh.