After bus, it's time for balloon diplomacy

PM was taken aback when an editor asked him if he would be ready to fly with him in a hot-air balloon to Pakistan for the cause of peace.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was somewhat taken aback when an Indian newspaper editor, who is also a hot air ballooning enthusiast, asked him if he would be ready to fly with him in a hot-air balloon to Pakistan for the cause of peace.

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"Well, there are risks associated with the offer, but I will certainly consider it," Singh said to all-round laughter at his press conference Friday here rounding off his visit to New York.

The questioner, Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, editor of Daily Tej and Sun, had asked a similar question of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at Islamabad some years ago to which he replied that he was ready to fly to India if someone was there to receive him.

That was before the Agra summit of 2001 when Musharraf was yearning for an invitation to visit India and meet Vajpayee.

Later on when a persistent Gupta put the same question to Musharraf last year, he said he was ready to undertake that adventure if prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also agreed to fly with him.