Yet, he offered a way forward.

When asked how could one save both the deal and the Indo-US relationship, Mishra said: “If I were to get credible guarantees from the government about the integrity of what we (the NDA) had left behind three and a half years ago, what has been done in these three and a half years for them to prove that there are also enthusiastic about the nuclear weapons programme, then I would say, personally, to go forward with the deal because I am not so critical of the US for following this particular policy. I am critical of the government bending to the wishes of the US.”

Asked what should the Government do to show that enthusiasm to convince you, Mishra said: “Let them say that without getting into numbers...this is what they have done in the last three and a half years, then a person like me, who is aware of the programme as it was before, would know.”

He added that a robust strategic programme and the nuclear deal going through “would help Indo-US relations.”

However, he underlined that his “impression” was that the Government is “less than enthusiastic” about the nuclear weapons programme. He cited the separation plan that puts 14 reactors under safeguards as a step that would limit the supply of fissile material claiming that in 2003, when he was in Washington, “we said that we in India would put a couple of our reactors under safeguards and all those to be built under international surveillance.”

... contd.