Now that the Pakistani playboy turned President has given us his word of assurance that- "India wont be nuked first" [link here] we can all go to our beds a lot relaxed it seems.
One gathers that he addressed the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit via a satellite link. Couldn't they have thought of Mr. Obama joining in too ? The whole hi-tech teleconferencing thing would have suited his stature much better. Or was he too busy constituting his economic advisory board and thus decided to leave the Summit briefing to his "trusted ally" in Pakistan on his behalf?
Talking on use of nuclear-weapons Mr. Zardari said, "We do not hope to even get to that position when we have to use." Use what, Sir ? Euphemisms or bombs ?
Rediff.com says :
Seeking to reach out to people across the border, he recalled his late wife Benazir Bhutto's lines -- "There is little of Indian in every Pakistani and a little of Pakistani in every Indian"
- Reeks of bhaaicharaa, one may say, but, I doubt if the thought of replacing Indians with Americans did not cross his mind while meeting one Mrs Sarah Palin a few weeks back.
Remembering his late wife, he said: "Spiritually, I feel her to be around all the time".
- Well, we now know what kept him restricted to just a hand-shake instead of the ambitious "hug" then. A 'spiritual' snub would have been something of an embarassment, I am sure.
The affable President also seemed to have talked of something of a "hands-off" policy regarding the ongoing Kashmir Elections now that all the passes in the valley are blocked to terror-export due to heavy snow-fall. And I am waiting for our media to laud this significant "thaw" in relations tomorrow morning. "We all are waiting for a thaw", Mr. Zardari must be thinking smugly.
Commenting on the present economic crisis, Zardari seems to have mooted the idea of building an "economic block" with India vis a vis the European Union.
- That makes us curious of what he is smoking these days - Subsidised marijuana from his Taliban neighbours ? Or opium imported from the neighbouring noodle-land ?
Also a relevant question in this regard would be - If and when this "economic block" pipe-dream sediments into something of a cobbled reality would it be enough if the usual "5%" is handed down to him ? Or has inflation had its effect on it too ?
link: rediff.com
photo: theage.com
