The Hindu : Front Page : The speech that could not be delivered

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 21, 2006

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The speech that could not be delivered

K. Natwar Singh, M. P. and former External Affairs Minister whose Congress membership has been suspended, was denied permission by his party to speak in the August 17 Rajya Sabha debate on key issues raised by the India-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation agreement under negotiation.

"Had I been allowed to speak," he says, "I would have given the Prime Minister my critical support. For I believe that leaders should not only contemplate problems, but must find solutions for them. India is not a commodity. It is a unique and durable civilisation, a never-ending pilgrimage."

On Dr. Manmohan Singh's reply to the debate, his former senior Cabinet colleague comments: "I regret to say the Prime Minister said a lot and conveyed very little in his speech. The bureaucratic jargon was wrapped in fog-making generalities. His 70-minute speech was comprehensive and covered a lot of the wrong ground. It begged all the serious questions and answered very few. He might have also ensured the death of a deal which in its original form was beneficial for us."

The former Foreign Minister said that as one "intimately connected with the deliberations leading up to the nuclear deal," he began to have doubts in April 2006, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the July 18, 2005 agreement "stand on its head" in her testimony before Congressional committees.

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