Netflix show ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’: What is the row about?

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, released on Netflix on August 29 and number 1 on the list of TV shows today (September 2), has got into trouble with the authorities.

The show, based on the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight by terrorists, has been accused of distorting facts and “whitewashing” terrorism. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has summoned the content head of Netflix India, Monika Shergill.

So, what is the row about, and why are these accusations being made?

The incident on which the show is based

The series is loosely based on the book Flight Into Fear: The Captain’s Story, penned by Devi Sharan, the captain of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814, and journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury. On December 24, 1999, the flight, carrying 188 passengers and crew members from Nepal’s Kathmandu to Delhi, was hijacked by five terrorists 40 minutes after take-off.

The hijackers, who had boarded the plane disguised as passengers, diverted the plane to Kandahar in the then Taliban-controlled Afghanistan after making multiple stops in Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai.

The terrorists were later identified as Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Shakir alias Rajesh Gopal Verma, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, and Ibrahim Athar, all members of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM).

As the crisis unfolded over the next eight days, one passenger named Rupin Katyal was killed by the terrorists as they demanded the release of three notorious terrorists: Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.

The then Indian government, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the prime minister, ultimately bowed to the pressure and then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh escorted the terrorists to Kandahar, a move that is questioned even today.

Complaints about the series, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, directed by Anubhav Sinha, is a dramatized version of the hijack. It features a stellar cast, including Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Arvind Swamy, Dia Mirza, and others.

However, soon after its release, a certain section of social media users accused the makers of “distorting facts”. Hashtags such as #BoycottNetflix and #BoycottBollywood started trending, as the users accused the makers of playing down the havoc wreaked by the actual hijackers.

A major contentious issue is the names of the hijackers. The use of the names “Shankar” and “Bhola” have prompted some users to allege an attempt to hide the terrorists’ real identities and their links with Islamic extremist groups. Some users have even claimed that assigning Hindu names to the terrorists is a distortion of facts and it is an attempt to vilify the Hindu community.

What the government stated in 2000

On January 6, 2000, the then Union Home Minister had issued a detailed statement revealing crucial information about the hijacking and the involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. The statement revealed the arrest of four ISI operatives, who provided support to the hijackers.

It is important to note that the statement revealed that the hijackers used nicknames such as Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, and Burger to address each other in the plane.

“To the passengers of the hijacked plane, these hijackers came to be known respectively as (1) Chief, (2) Doctor, (3) Burger, (4) Bhola and (5) Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed one another,” the statement says.

Who said what

However, the BJP is not too happy with the apparently realistic depiction following the original incident and has accused the “Left” of whitewashing the “crimes of Pakistani terrorists”.

BJP’s Amit Malviya tweeted, “The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists, who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, legitimised their criminal intent, by furthering their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814.”

Malviya suggested that cinema, used “aggressively” by Communists since the 1970s, serves its “agenda” to shift the blame and “weaken” India’s security.

BJP MP and actor Kangana Ranaut reacted to the post saying “there is all the freedom for communists or leftists across the world for such anti national expressions”.

NC leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was “really amusing to see the people who took movies like Kashmir Files as the gospel truth having a meltdown at the way the events of IC814 are depicted in the Netflix show”.

“Now suddenly they want accuracy and nuance packaged in the script,” Abdullah wrote on X.