Another faux pas by SM Krishna; Manmohan intervenes

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In yet another faux pas, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna on Thursday got confused about an octogenarian Pakistani doctor lodged in Ajmer jail, saying the government of Pakistan must consider his release on humanitarian grounds.

Krishna's strange answer during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha led to an intervention by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who clarified the matters.

Shivanand Tiwari (JD-U) had asked as to what the government was doing for the release of the wheel chair-bound Dr Mohammad Khalil Chisti, a virologist who was sentenced to life imprisonment in December last in a 1992 murder case while he was on a visit to India to see his ailing mother.

Krishna responded during the Question Hour by stating that this ‘particular person’ was detained in Pakistan and it was a question to be considered by the government of that country on ‘humanitarian grounds’.

As puzzled members looked on, the minister went on to say that Dr Chisti was confined to a wheel chair and was more than 80 years old, and he was sure that the government of Pakistan would take a lenient view about the case.

"We will, certainly pursue this at the level of the high commissioner," he added.

Krishna has been in the news for wrong reasons earlier too, the most recent instance being last week in the Lok Sabha where he appeared absent-minded when called upon to make a statement on Sri Lanka.

Earlier in February, the external affairs minister had read out the speech of the Portuguese representative at the United Nations.

Speaking at the United Nations Security Council during a debate on security and development, Krishna read out the wrong speech for about three minutes before being corrected by India's envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri.