Einstein and Indo-Pak talks

At the launch of India’s National Security Annual Review 2009, someone in the audience asked National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon as to what he was hoping for from the India-Pakistan talks. He said, “Einstein once said that if we knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t call it research!”. Having delivered his wisecrack, Menon explained how the talks were a process and it was difficult to know where exactly they would end up, though he did say that “it takes two hands to clap” — that is, the talks are unlikely to succeed if the Pakistan side doesn’t deliver on a few things. In response to a request for his comment on whether India’s armed forces were at all prepared for action, Menon asked whether the gentleman actually expected him to respond to that in public, so that “our enemies will know exactly what is happening”.