The Hindu : PM avoids query on 'retirement'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 03, 2003

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PM avoids query on 'retirement'

By Amit Baruah

LAUSANNE (SWITZERLAND) JUNE 2. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has again refused to be drawn into the "controversy" generated by his remarks to a German magazine that he would "retire" if his third and latest initiative with the Pakistan fails.

Asked to clarify the question at his press conference today in this picturesque city, across the Lake of Geneva from the venue of yesterday's G-8 "enlarged dialogue" at Evian, France, the Prime Minister told the journalist who asked the question: "Saval saf nahin hai (The question is not clear)." And then he winked at the presspersons assembled at the Hotel Beau Rivage.

An aide to the Prime Minister later explained that it was not as if Mr. Vajpayee was trying to avoid the question — he would address it upon arrival in India.

Whatever the question and the "answer", one thing is pretty clear — Mr. Vajpayee has no plans to retire. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying his three-nation foreign tour where he has talked with leaders from all the five permanent member-countries of the United Nations.

`Bush was drinking water'

Looking relaxed at the end of a week-long foreign tour, Mr. Vajpayee, today found time to disclose what he thought were some lesser known personal details about the United States President, George W. Bush.

While proposing a toast at dinner in St. Petersburg on Saturday, Mr. Vajpayee said he found that Mr. Bush had not been drinking liquor for the last 16 years.

"How many people know that President Bush doesn't drink alcohol," he asked the assembled journalists. During the "toast" (which Mr. Vajpayee described as "sahat ka jam" in Hindi), at the private dinner hosted by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister said the American leader was drinking water. "I was quite surprised that he (Mr. Bush) had stopped drinking for the last 16 years." The Prime Minister said that when the dinner was getting over, Mr. Putin got up to thank the conductor and musicians who had been performing for the assembled world leaders. "When Mr. Putin got up and got ready to go, Mr. Bush decided to join him. But when he saw (the German) Chancellor (Gerhard) Schroeder do the same, Mr. Bush sat down again," Mr. Vajpayee said adding that Mr. Bush went again after some time.

Mr. Vajpayee then returned to serious foreign policy issues such as the important role that the French President, Jacques Chirac, played in organising an extended dialogue session between the leaders of the G-8 and the 12 developing countries. But that was not the end of the story.

An intrepid journalist asked what he had been "drinking" during the toast. Mr. Vajpayee said: "Is it necessary to answer the question? A common man drinks water".