Between ‘retire’ and ‘sanyas’, there’s a smile

The prestigious German magazine had run the interview last morning — just before Vajpayee was to meet Chancellor Schroeder in Berlin. An alert reporter from the Indian news agencies cottoned on to the English word ‘‘retire.’’

Evidently, the PM had used it in his comments to the German journalists. The story had hardly landed in newsrooms all over India when newshounds smelt a screaming headline. Soon, television was announcing that the Prime Minister would ‘‘take sanyas’’ if his peace attempt with Pakistan failed.

As the controversy gathered apace, journalists accompanying the PM waited with bated breath to ‘‘clarify’’ what the Prime Minister had really said. Minutes were spent debating what he had actually meant.

Aides refused to comment on record, conceding that he had used the word ‘‘retire.’’ They only pointed out that Vajpayee had really reiterated what he had said in his now-famous Srinagar speech on April 18, that if he didn’t succeed this time with Pakistan, he would ‘‘give up,’’ and not continue to try, try, try again.

When Air-India One landed at Munich airport this afternoon, on the second German leg of the PM’s tour, camera teams as well as print journalists were on hand. What did you mean, they asked. ‘‘Voh maine apne liye kaha tha,’’ he answered. Just as the mystery was beginning to deepen, someone pointed out that his words had been accompanied with a broad smile.

Question is, when there’s a story to be done and everybody else is doing it, how do you interpret a smile? Clearly, when you’re with a Prime Minister famous for his wry humour as well as his penchant for the classic understatement — that he has used with such telling effect in Germany — a hack can hardly afford to take a chance with words.

Mark, for example, what the PM told German parliamentarians in Berlin yesterday about the ‘‘not dissimilar’’ challenges that India and Germany faced, although one was clearly a developed nation and the former still in the act of developing itself.

‘‘We have followed the patient process of trying to reconcile competing interests —I think you have also experienced this process in decision-making in Europe,’’ he said.

Then he added: ‘‘I should inform you that my coalition government has as nearly many parties as the number of countries the European Union would have, after its expansion.’’

Not that the Prime Minister, his speechwriters insisted, shied away from taking a direct stand on the bolder issues, like terrorism. ‘‘India has suffered from terrorism and from the consequences of the double standards applied by countries to deal with terrorism in different places,’’ he bluntly told the parliamentarians.

The googly on his own future notwithstanding, his comments on Iraq — the first since New Delhi’s refusal earlier this week to send a stabilisation force under US command — also supported the UN rather than the US-led interim authority in Baghdad.

Recent global developments have yet again emphasised the importance of evolving a cooperative multi-polar world order, which would promote the ethic of pluralism and consensus.

‘‘We are happy that the UN Security Council has reached unanimous agreement on the manner of moving forward in Iraq, with an important role for the UN and its organisations,’’ Vajpayee said.

Clearly, enough had been said for one day. It was time for the PM to retire for the night.