New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has claimed that the BJP leaders had wished death for him because of his resolve to sign the nuclear deal. He said this three months back in an interview to the India Today news magazine.
The Prime Minister had given the interview in June with the understanding that it will come out only when the 123 Agreement is signed.
Speaking on the attitude of Opposition party, the Prime Minister said: "It requires a big leap in approach and the attitude of the BJP is disappointing. They didn’t even believe I would last as the Prime Minister and some leaders even did havans that I should die on a certain day."
"But I have faith on higher force. I believe it was my destiny to be PM. I have the courage of conviction," he said.
The revelation came in the context of remarks made by NDA convenor George Fernandes against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which he reportedly said if it was China, they would have shot him in the head by a bullet.
The UPA has demanded an apology or withdrawal of the remark by the former defence minister but Fernandes says he won't apologise.
Singh, who has been under attack from the BJP-led Opposition and the Left allies over the nuclear cooperation agreement, also claimed that the nuclear deal was a 'logical fallout' of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership that the NDA Government headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee had begun with the US.
"It was an outcome of that process... while we had successfully made nuclear weapons, on the power front, there were too many shifting targets. We had set a target of 10,000 MW of nuclear power almost 35 years ago and now we have only around 3,700 MW. The deal would help us meet our targets for nuclear power," he said.
In the same interview, the PM also made his stand clear on India's stand on nuclear test vis-à-vis the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
The PM told India Today that he had made it clear to US President George W Bush during negotiations on the Indo-US nuclear deal that India could not agree to a 'bilateral' NPT or the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
He said it was not in India's interest for Iran to become a nuclear weapons power, although it had the right to have nuclear energy as an NPT member.
"I told President Bush, I can't be a cheerleader or be part of a war-mongering group. The nuclear dispute with Iran should be resolved through peaceful processes," he told the India Today magazine.
The Prime Minister's comments came in an interview conducted over two months back while he was returning from the G-8 Summit of Industrialsied countries in Germany. Singh had met Bush and other world leaders during his trip in June.
The magazine said its understanding was that excerpts of the interview could be published once the 123 Agreement was reached.
Singh recalled that the US President had told him in July, 2005, "Don't expect me to help you to build bombs. I told him I didn't expect the US to do that because with our previous achievements, we didn't need anyone's help."
The Prime Minister said: "I made it clear during the negotiations that we can't agree to a bilateral NPT or CTBT. We have a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing and we will exercise restraint."
Describing President Bush as a 'very easy person' to deal with, Singh said: "He is very nice to me and of all the US Presidents, he is the friendliest towards India."
Noting that the US had become the 'sole superpower' almost 15 years back, he said: "But all these years, no Indian government had the courage to change our policy towards the US." It was felt during foreign policy review that Indo-US relations were the key in a globalised world and "we needed to give them the highest importance. We have stayed the course."
(With PTI inputs)
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