— Photo: AP

SHARING NOTES AND THOUGHTS: Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran (right) and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan confer before the Manmohan-Bush press conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

New Delhi: When President George Bush and his delegation left for his visit to India, New Delhi and Washington did not have a "deal" on the civilian nuclear cooperation. En route the Presidential aides put a call to New Delhi. It was rough talk, first with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and then with National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan.

On Wednesday the mood among Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's aides was grim. Just before the Prime Minister set out for the airport to receive President Bush on Wednesday evening, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs was apprised of the difficulties the negotiations had run into on the question of "safeguards."

When President Bush landed in New Delhi and was introduced to the National Security Adviser, he whispered in Mr. Narayanan's ear: "I want that deal."

The two delegations met on Wednesday night. The Americans were unrelentingly demanding on safeguards, just as the Indian interlocutors were unyielding on some kind of assurance on the continuity in the supply of nuclear fuel. It was a deadlock.

Mindful of President Bush's anxiety, the Americans promised to produce on Thursday morning an agreeable formulation on the safeguards. The American side of the story is yet to be told, but Thursday morning they did produce a detailed formulation, which the Indian side found eminently acceptable.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee pronounced himself satisfied. The political go-ahead was given. Then, Dr. Anil Kakodkar and Dr. R. Chidambram, the two key nuclear establishment figures, got to have a look at the American proposal. "We can live with it," was the nuclear scientists' verdict.

At the President Abdul Kalam's banquet at Rashtrapati Bhavan for President Bush on Thursday evening, Mr. T.K. Nair, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, told The Hindu in the presence of Dr. Kakodkar: "Normally I do not like to be quoted at all in the media, but you can quote me on this. Dr. Kakodkar has always had a "veto." Without his go-ahead, we could not have agreed to anything."

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