Indo-Pak: UPA scrambles to contain damage

Islamabad: Delhi went into scramble mode today to contain potential damage from the taunts let loose by the Pakistani establishment at the Indian foreign minister SM Krishna even before he had left Pakistani soil. Pakistani foreign minister SM Qureshi's taunts were true to the Pakistani establishment's traditional style of operating with impunity in the face of Indian dithering.

Ironically, even as Qureshi let loose his volley of insults, SM Krishna, giving every impression of having woken up after a refreshing sleep on his flight from Islamabad to Delhi, was trying to act poised and cool at an impromptu press conference at a Delhi airport on his arrival here. In the course of his meet, when asked what he did after the press meet last night, he replied without any sense of irony that he went to sleep.

For observers Krishna was the picture of a man overtaken by events even before his flight from Islamabad had reached Delhi.

Krishna denied Qureshi's allegations that he was on the telephone receiving instructions from Delhi throughout his meeting with him. He was clear that he had a firm and crystal clear mandate and that he had no reason to check with Delhi on any issue. All this he clarified in response to Qureshi's allegations that the Indian foreign minister needed constant promptings from Delhi to fulfil his mission even as he did not.

Even as ministers in Delhi were making a beeline for the prime minister's and the Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi's' residence to strategise  on ways to contain the fallout the hopelessly disconnected old SM Krishna was profusely thanking Qureshi for his excellent hospitality.

He also kept referring to his Pakistani counterpart as ''his Excellency'' throughout his press meet.