Sadiq: It’s fascinating, this politics business. If you’re a politician, you know the number one thing you have to compromise on?
Ameen: Morals?
Sadiq: Nope.
Ameen: Peace?
Sadiq: No.
Ameen: I give up.
Sadiq: Memory. Politics is a repeated exercise in forgetting. You simply can’t afford to remember the good or the bad of the past. You have to keep moving, keep swallowing your own hypocrisy. That’s the name of the game. Lose your memory where it suits you.
Ameen: I suspect you’re referring to Obama’s India visit.
Sadiq: That bear hug. God, I shudder at the thought. What must be going through Obama’s head?
Ameen: I’d rather not go there.
Sadiq: Modi was blacklisted from entering the United States. Blacklisted. And here we are, hugging the Commander in Chief of the US armed forces, getting all cosy with Mr. Human Rights defender himself.
Ameen: Ah, the poetry, the symbolism of an embrace. You sound rather ticked off, Sadiq. A little jealous, are we?
Sadiq: Actually, not at all. I’m just amused at the game. It’s fascinating. Just wait and see the news tomorrow. You put the words nuclear cooperation, India and United States in print within a three column radius of each other, and they’re already deploying more troops along the LoC. The game, Ameen. It’s a mastery and a trickery at the same time. There is no sincerity, none in the least. Self-interested states embracing one another, losing their memories as they see fit. I for one, am not bothered at all by this hoopla.
Ameen: Let’s hope the rest of the country reacts the same way in the morning.