And Abdullah Abdullah of Afghanistan, they opposed NATO. My position is well known, they found me uncomfortable. I’ve written to Mrs Gandhi, I’ve told her, Listen, we must have an independent policy.

• So this was an American conspiracy to get you out? To get Jack Straw out, to get Abdullah Abdullah out and to get you out?

What else can it mean.

• As three foreign ministers of three allied countries, three friendly countries...are you making this seriously or are you saying this in a fit of anger.

I don’t get angry. Occasionally I get angry but I never lose my nerve. But I know enough about foreign policy, I know enough about the American System, I know what the neocons are doing, what Mr Bush is thinking..

• So what did you say after April 5? If I understand you correctly, after April 5, because your doubts became well known, Americans targeted you. How did you express your doubts?

I wrote a very long piece on this (in The Asian Age) explaining what’s happened after April 5 and that it’s going for the worse. I wrote to the Prime Minister, I wrote to the Congress president and I spoke in public. I am all for good relations with the US but I am not for India becoming a client state of any country.

• But Volcker had come out much earlier than that.

Doesn’t matter. No country in the world has taken note of Volcker.

... contd.