A Nawaz-Modi smile and wave create a
new kind of controversy
UNITED NATIONS: The meeting
everybody wanted did not happen. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for
home without meeting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
The two leaders lived in the same
hotel --- the Waldorf Astoria --- during the 70th UN General Assembly. Twice,
they shared a room and used the same podium to address a summit meeting but
they did not meet or talk.
Like quarrelsome neighbors forced
to acknowledge each other, the two prime ministers, however, did wave and smile
at each other. This happened at the UN peacekeeping summit on Monday afternoon.
But even this half-friendly gesture generated another controversy: who blinked
first?
“India wins again. The Pakistani
prime minister was the first to wave,” claimed the Indian media while the two
leaders were still in the meeting room.
“No, he did not,” shouted a
journalist in the Pakistani media room at the nearby Roosevelt Hotel. And then
both sides got glued to their TV screens, watching replays in slow motion to
claim a point in this game of chicken.
“Does it really matter?” asked Maleeha
Lodhi, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, after a half-hour
“who-was-the-first” debate at an evening news briefing. “All that matters is
that the two leaders waved and smiled at each other,” said Pakistan’s Foreign
Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry.
This is how this ‘non-event’
happened at the Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping, hosted jointly by the US,
Pakistan and others: Mr. Modi walked into the conference hall first and took
his seat on the right side of the horseshoe table there. Mr. Sharif followed
and took his seat right across Mr. Modi on the left side of the table. Both
pretended not to have noticed each other.
Just minutes before the programme
began, Mr. Sharif waved at Mr. Modi. Yes, he was the first to show his positive
mindset, persuading the Indian leader to respond.
Mr. Modi smiled back and waved
too. After a brief pause, Mr. Modi waved again to Mr. Sharif, who smiled back
and nodded his head.
Now, who was the winner? Perhaps
none or both, but that was not good enough for the media who continued to
debate who won. Apparently handicapped by their over-zealous media, the two
leaders avoided further display of affection for each other.
They made no attempt to interact.
They entered the room just minutes before the summit began and took their seats.
To avoid a face-to-face situation, the two leaders did not walk about to meet
or greet others, as some other leaders did.
But they did clap at the end of
each other’s speech.
Since Mr. Sharif was a co-host, a
fact not mentioned by the Indian media, he shared the table with other hosts,
US President Barack Obama, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leaders
from Rwanda and Ethiopia.
Mr. Modi sat with UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and leaders from France
and Indonesia.
The Indian and Pakistani prime
ministers spent about 90 minutes in the conference room and Mr. Modi was the
first to leave, immediately after addressing the summit. He did not walk up to
any leader to shake hands. Mr. Sharif left the room soon after Mr. Modi.
Mr. Modi flew back to India on
Monday night after concluding his two-nation tour of Ireland and the US.
Prime Minister Sharif is still in
New York and will return home on Wednesday after addressing the UN General
Assembly
