He said that an economic turnaround is likely to begin by September. “I am not an astrologer, it is the informed guess of the people who seem to know,” he said.

On Pakistan, the Prime Minister said: “We cannot choose our neighbours, we need to work towards reconciliation.”

He said that India and Pakistan had almost reached an agreement on outstanding issues in February 2007. “Musharraf said he could not handle too many problems (he was facing the Chief Justice issue)...We had nearly got Pakistan to agree (to our line),” he said.

Asked why he said he would have quit if the nuclear deal fell through, Singh said: “We had negotiated for three years, we had resolved all issues to India’s satisfaction. We had worked hard to line up 45 NSG countries (to support the deal). After all this, if the government had said, ‘No, thank you, we will not touch this,’ it would have been a disaster, a calamity. India’s honour was at stake.”