MALE, May 12: Prime Minister IK Gujral may have retrieved the situation a bit by deviating from the prepared text of his speech to respond to the other South Asian heads of state, particularly Nawaz Sharif whom he promised that ``today's talks, by the grace of God, will be a milestone.'' But so shoddy was the speech written for him, so bland and so utterly lacking in character and substance that many in the red-faced Indian Press corps were left in the ``come back Bhabani, all is forgiven'' mood.

There was, indeed, also the other less charitable interpretation. That the speech was actually Bhabani Sengupta's revenge on Gujral, the first and the last speech he wrote for him before bowing out, to teach a lesson to the ``friend'' who ``failed to defend him.'' But seriously, not even the worst of Bhabani baiters would ever accuse him of stringing such irritating inanities together. And load it with bad English as well.

Try and make sense of the following: ``The warmth and the gracious hospitality which have enveloped us since our arrival further enhance our delight.'' Or ``SAARC serves the uplift (sic) of close to a fourth of all humanity.'' Or this attempt at laboured (tickle, tickle) humour:

``Twenty-twenty has become a symbolic as well as specific destination, representing both perfect vision and a target year.''

In all of 11 typed pages that partly contributed to the inaugural session stretching well over 45 minutes beyond scheduled time, poor Gujral was given nothing of consequence to say on substantive issues while he elaborated on themes more relevant to the Earth Summit: Biosphere and global warming, nutrition and sanitation, girl child and the ``basic premise of the primacy of the human being.''

This, when most of the other leaders, particularly Nawaz and Chandrika Kumaratunge dwelt on substantive political issues. It was no surprise, therefore, that during the session, Gujral was seen scribbling furiously and made a departure from the text towards the end.His presence of mind may have saved the day for him somewhat. But surely a politician-diplomat of Gujral’s reputation and stature deserved a much better text, at least written in reasonably correct and comprehensible English.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.