Manmohan Singh surprised the nation by defending successfully what appeared to be indefensible. The Sharm al-Sheikh statement was quite a faux pas and hardly a thing the PM should have ventured into single-handedly. He is thought of more as a man of statistics and figures and hardly a statesman of Vajpayee’s calibre. But he did have all the answers and put them forth with remarkable dexterity. His best stroke was the tribute he paid to Vajpayee, who, he said, did not shy away from taking the bus to Lahore in the much worse ambience of terror. He rightly maintained the need to engage Pakistan when it is still not consumed by the same terrorism, of which India wants an end.
Dr Mookhi Amir Ali
Mumbai