Pakistan hails the joint statement as its victory because resumption of dialogue is not specifically linked to terrorism and Mumbai 26/11 attacks and also because of mention of Baluchistan. The Indian side is happy that the buzzword Kashmir does not find a place in the statement. According to the Indian interpretation, it is implicit in the joint statement that for meaningful resumption of dialogue, Pakistan must furnish concrete evidence of action against those who planned and carried out the Mumbai terror attacks. These divergent interpretations are reminiscent of lawyers interpreting the same Supreme Court judgment as supportive of their case.

Words have always conveyed different meanings to different people. The various Protestant sects based on different interpretations of the Bible exemplify the point. There are erudite texts on principles of interpretation of statutes and deeds. However in Alice in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty said in a scornful tone, “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less”. When Alice asked how words could mean so many different things, Humpty Dumpty said, “The question is which is to be the master—that is all”.

It must be realised that the question is not one of defeat or victory for India or Pakistan but that in view of the prevalent domestic and international ground realities, jettisoning dialogue with Pakistan is not a pragmatic option.

Art and spiritual censorship

When in London, my pilgrimage is to the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Almost every major English poet is either buried or remembered in the Abbey’s Poets’ Corner. The Dean decides the admissions into the Poets’ Corner. Some moralistic deans have excluded many eminent literary personalities. Lord Byron who died in Greece was refused an Abbey burial on account of what the Dean called his ‘open profligacy—an obstacle to his commemoration’ and had to wait until 1969 for his memorial. Thomas Hardy in his 1924 poem, A Refusal, satirised the Dean and specifically requested that he should not be buried in the Abbey but near his family in Dorset. However, when Hardy died, his agent arranged a grand funeral and after much argument Hardy was buried in the Abbey—except for his heart, which was taken to Dorset in a biscuit tin and buried in the churchyard of St. Michael’s, Stinsford. Another victim of spiritual censure was George Eliot, pseudonym for May Ann Evans, for whom an Abbey memorial was initially rejected owing to her agnosticism and the fact that she lived, unmarried, with a man. DH Lawrence’s memorial appeared belatedly in 1985.

... contd.