It was a quote that made me smile this morning. “We have to find 'landing ground' for our trade discussions,” said our External Affairs Minister, reported The Times of India.
Now, in my vivid imagination—one that has a life of its own—I see the weary minister flying to yet another one of the hundred countries his boss sends him to. Poor man. He’s barely finished negotiating in one capital before he’s shipped off to the next, his briefcase packed with dossiers, diplomacy, and dark circles under his eyes.
As he’s finally about to doze off midair, dreaming perhaps of a quiet weekend at home with a cup of chai that doesn’t taste like recycled aircraft water, an air hostess taps his shoulder. “Sir,” she says politely, “the pilot wants to see you.”
Now that’s not the kind of message any passenger wants to hear at 30,000 feet. But a minister can’t refuse, so off he trudges to the cockpit.
The pilot turns, smiles, and says, “Sir, I heard you’re looking for ‘landing ground’ for your talks. Thought I’d ask—does that patch below look good enough for us to land?”
The minister peers through the window. “Hmm,” he says wisely, “it looks calm and inviting.”
“That, sir,” says the pilot dryly, “is the Arabian Sea.”
The minister looks agitated. “Oh no, we shouldn’t be landing there!”
“Well, we would if you were the pilot,” the pilot says cheerfully, “and with that, the aircraft, you, and your trade deals will all go straight to the bottom. Because, sir, a landing ground isn’t about calm appearances. It’s about solid foundations. Rock. Earth. Runway.”
The minister nods slowly. “Ah yes, solid ground.”
“And that,” says the pilot, “is what your policies need too—solid landing ground. You can’t land foreign policy on shifting waves of convenience. You can’t support a bully invading a smaller country just because he offers you cheaper oil. You can’t say one thing abroad about democracy and do the opposite back home. A plane doesn’t land on slogans, sir. It lands on truth.”
The minister blinks. “Truth?”
“Yes,” says the pilot, “truth that your domestic runway must be made of equality and justice. Where minorities are not persecuted and made to feel insecure. Where women aren’t raped with impunity. Where the machinery of government isn’t used to flatten the opposition. That’s the kind of landing the world wants to see you make.”
The minister looks thoughtful. “And if we don’t?”
The pilot shrugs. “Then, Mr. Minister, we’ll be circling forever—burning fuel, losing altitude, and when we finally land, it’ll be into the sea of our own hypocrisy.”
And as the minister returns to his seat, one hopes he realizes the wisdom in the pilot’s words—that in diplomacy, politics, and life itself, smooth landings happen only on runways built of truth. Anything else, dear reader, is just a crash waiting to happen…!
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