I fully appreciate The Indian Express having its own point of view on the Indo-US nuclear agreement (‘RELATAD STORY). I also appreciate the fact that despite this you gave coverage to the views expressed by me regarding the way our prime minister has dealt with the country on this. In a democratic country with a free press this is how it should be.

It may need reiterating here that my statement described different situations that would arise in other countries if the head of government were to lie to its people. Bill Clinton was sought to be impeached over a small lie. In China they shoot people for indulging in corruption and would certainly use the same methodology if they felt they had been deceived on an important issue of national security by their own leader. I followed this line of expression by demanding the resignation of the prime minister, which to me is a very mild form of opposition in comparison. Jayalalithaa has today also called for the PM’s resignation for the same reason.

Against this background a small piece of mischievous nonsense has appeared in your paper under a section titled ‘Delhi Confidential’ (IE, August 20). It speculates that my attack on the prime minister could be because of some problems that one of my “close friends” was facing. Let me be upfront as is my habit and say that this “close friend”, namely R.V. Pandit, is as close and long-time a friend of The Indian Express as he is of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, and meets all of us including the prime minister whenever he comes to Delhi to discuss matters of national interest. I know that the PM would vouch for his integrity and patriotism. The prime minister and I spoke about R.V. Pandit’s problems and share a common concern for his health and situation.

... contd.