Following the S-word policy

Once I got his confession I was all over him.

‘‘I apologise,’’ he said tamely. ‘‘In the case of Madan Lal Khurana, his thoughts on L K Advani — the same as mine of you — were aired. But mine were private.’’

That was not good enough.

‘‘Okay, I regret having made the remarks,’’ Mukul corrected himself. ‘‘Look I am doing both — regretting and apologising; but Khurana has only expressed his regrets about his statements on Advani.’’

‘‘With apologies and regrets all over the place I don’t know which is worse,’’ I pointed out.

‘‘I feel sorry for Khurana who has been longer with his party than I’ve been with you,’’ said Mukul. ‘‘The truth is that he is actually expressing regret about his apology because he has not been made a full-fledged member.’’

‘‘I could have sacked you,’’ I cut in, ‘‘but unlike the way Advani treated Khurana I gave you a chance to explain.’’

‘‘That’s true but I am still entitled to express my opinion about people in my own diary which is not for public viewing,’’ was Mukul’s retort.

‘‘You never know these TV channels,’’ I argued. ‘‘If they have no news for the day, your diary could well be a major story.’’

‘‘In Khurana’s case, a public expression of regret is always taken seriously,’’ Mukul argued, ‘‘because did he say he was upset about the Babri Masjid demolition?’’

‘‘He said he was sorry about the demolition, but is that a regret or an apology?’’ I asked.

‘‘Agreed that the BJP has used the apology policy to ridiculous limits but the Congress too is happy with this business of apologies,’’ claimed Mukul. ‘‘Recently, they apologised to the Sikhs for the 1984 riots.’’

As expected, Mukul had got the better of me.

‘‘This furore over Dr Singh’s remarks about Vajpayee during the Bush meeting in New York,’’ I said, changing the subject and attacking his ‘‘soft’’ corner for the BJP, ‘‘I’m sure the BJP would want to reap political capital out of it.’’

‘‘There is a simple solution,’’ claimed Mukul. ‘‘Dr Manmohan Singh needs to apologise to Mr Vajpayee and express regrets if he’s offended the former Prime Minister.’’

‘‘I think that is going too far,’’ I protested. Tired of the apology issue, I changed tracks. ‘‘What if we don’t get the UN seat despite French support. We’ll end up buying billions of dollars worth of submarines and civilian aircraft from them and get nothing in return.’’

That set him thinking. ‘‘If that happens, I’m sure Dr Singh would take the high moral ground,’’ was Mukul’s response.

‘‘And do what?’’ I asked.

‘‘Apologise to the nation of course,’’ was his retort.