Kalam endorsed Indo-US nuclear deal: Manmohan Singh

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, in his first interview since he stepped down as prime minister, said that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam helped him clear the Parliament logjam on nuclear deal even when he was not the president, and that Kalam's reservation on Sonia Gandhi as a choice for the PM post is a canard.

Here is the transcript of an excerpt from the interview, hosted by Karan Thapar for To The Point television show.

Karan Thapar: Dr Manmohan Singh, Dr Abdul Kalam is perhaps India's most popular presidents India has had. You and before you, Atal Bihari Vajpayee were the two men who served as his prime minister. How do you remember Dr Kalam?

Manmohan Singh: When Dr Kalam became the President I served him as the prime minister for more than three years. He was the one who administered me the oath of office and secrecy and my relationship with him was that of great friendship. He recognised the problems that I had in managing a difficult coalition government. Yet, another important issue that came before our government was the familiar nuclear deal with the United States. I took the precaution of keeping the President fully in the picture at various stages of negotiation. I used to brief him and I was very happy when he endorsed what we were doing. Of course when I faced the vote of no confidence in the Parliament he was no longer the President even then he played a very important role in the helping the deal to go forward. That time there was a problem with regard to the voting pattern, how will it go. The prospects of government winning the vote of confidence were being questioned and I was discussing these patterns with Amar Singh Ji and also with Mulayam Singh Ji and with great difficulty we managed to persuade them to relook at their objection. It occurred to me that Mulayam Singh Ji had great regard and respect for Dr Kalam. I suggested then to Amar Singh Ji that if you don't believe my word you might listen to Dr Abdul Kalam. They went to see Abdul Kalam and he told them this deal is in national interest and that means the Samajwadi Party was on board and we won the vote of confidence.

Karan Thapar: Now he was of course as you said a moment ago, he was the President who swore you in; it was Dr Kamal who made you the Prime Minister with that swearing in oath in Rashtrapati Bhavan. At that time there were a lot of speculations in the papers that he had a reservation or hesitation in making Sonia Gandhi the prime minister. When you met him together on the 18 May, 2004, what happened at that meeting?

Manmohan Singh: I think this is a canard which is being spread. There is no truth in that. Kalam never questioned who will be the person who will swear in. That was the privilege given under our Constitution to the party or person who claimed majority support and anything that is said on that area will not be true, this is being spread that he had hesitation in swearing in Mrs. Gandhi, that issue was never discussed in my presence.

Karan Thapar: Because as you would know emails were being exchanged, messages were being sent on the internet claiming that Dr. Kalam had asked for Mrs Gandhi's passport, that he had asked other for information and details to prove she was in debt. That was all rubbish?

Manmohan Singh: Not to my knowledge.

Karan Thapar: It was all rubbish.

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Here are the other key points:

The former prime minister also speaks about the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in 2005 which was subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. In the interview he talks about how he rang Dr Kalam, who was in Russia at the time, the initial doubts Kalam had and how in a substantive and lengthy conversation Manmohan Singh had addressed them.

Singh is also questioned about Kalam's revelations in his book 'Turning Points" that after the Supreme Court struck down the dissolution Dr Kalam's conscience told him he must resign but Dr Manmohan Singh persuaded him not to.

Reminiscing his association with Kalam, Singh said he had an excellent relationship with him when both were in office. "He trusted me and I respected him enormously. This was a relationship of which I was a great beneficiary."