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March 5, 2008
Vajpayee is Bhishm Pitamah
of Indian Politics: Manmohan

New Delhi
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday described his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Bhishm Pitamah of Indian politics and urge him to convince his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about the merits of the India-US nuclear deal.

Replying in the Rajya Sabha to the debate on Motion of Thanks for the customary presidential address to the joint session of parliament, Manmohan Singh referred to the nuclear deal and recalled: "Brajesh Mishra has had pangs of conscience and supported the deal."

Mishra was the national security adviser in the Vajpayee government.

"I now hope that the Bhishm Pitamah of Indian politics, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will also put some sense in the BJP," he stated, referring to the patriarch equally respected by the Pandavas and Kauravas in the epic of Mahabharata.

Manmohan also made mentioned a book authored by former US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott that noted that the Vajpayee government was willing to settle for far less favourable terms for an India-US nuclear deal than now offered to the Manmohan Singh led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

As the US emissary, Talbott has described his interactions with then Indian external affairs minister Jaswant Singh.

While Jaswant Singh, who now leads the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, sat unmoved, Yashwant Sinha, who also served as foreign minister in the same Vajpayee government, was visibly agitated and rose to refute the prime minister's remarks.

But Jaswant Singh motioned to Sinha not to interrupt the prime minister and two minutes later Sinha left the house shaking his head, even as some BJP members sitting closer to him to tried to hold him back.

March 5, 2008

IANS | Top