Seeking to answer Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism of his remarks to President George W Bush about former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's reservations against India-United States nuclear agreement, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said he did not intend to discuss domestic politics in the United States and the utterances should be viewed in the context.
Dr Singh said he told Bush that upon his return to India after his previous trip, he had obtained the approval of Parliament. "In passing, I said I was surprised at the opposition former prime minister Vajpayee expressed in his statement even before there was any discussion in Parliament. That was the context of his remarks to Bush about Vajpayee".
PMO downplays PM's comments on Vajpayee
"There was no intention on my part to discuss domestic politics in the United States," Singh said. He suggested that the Indian American community could help in persuading their Congressmen and Senators that what the Administration has done promotes relations between India and the United States."