cancelled talks between the national security advisers of Pakistan and India," the Dawn had commented then.

Secrecy, thankfully, has been the better part of diplomacy this time. And the media has been told what it should know, instead of what it wants to know.

After the Paris meeting between Modi and Sharif, the two governments did not play to the galleries by hailing it as a precursor to path-breaking talks, an error the two countries had made after a similar meeting in Ufa.

The media, in fact, was made to believe that the two countries have no plans of going back to discussions.

“Although the Indian media, which is present at COP21 in large numbers, went into frenzy over the encounter, an official from the Pakistani delegation later clarified that the Modi-Sharifmeeting was more of an ice-breaker than anything else,” the Dawn opined.

In India, the Times of India argued that Sharif's offer for unconditional talks had found no takers in India. "There has been no response from the Indian government in the 48 hours since the "offer" was made. Sources said there was unlikely to be one," the newspaper said.

The red-herrings have worked. Compare the hysteria in August on Pakistan's anger at India's reported refusal to discuss Kashmir and India's fit of rage on the neighbour's insistence on meeting Hurriyat with the calm and pragmatic solution to the two piquant problems: Kashmir has been discussed with other issues and the Kashmiri separatists have been avoided with the single and simple solution of meeting at a neutral venue.

The result: the