Asked if he was hurt by the Congress president’s outburst over the pending ordinance, felt insulted and his authority undermined, the prime minister replied rather stoically: “I have been through ups and downs. I am used to it. I take it in my stride.” The prime minister was having a tête-à-tête with accompanying media persons on board the special flight today at the end of his four-day visit to the United States where he had summit talks with US President Barack Obama at Washington DC, addressed the United Nations General Assembly meet at New York and met Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the prime minister of Nepal.

The prime minister said the decision on promulgating an ordinance on the subject was not taken or spearheaded by him individually. It was a collective decision of the union cabinet and the Congress core group. The matter was discussed not once, but twice. But, he was prepared to revisit them. “He (Rahul Gandhi) has written to me on the subject also and let me say when issues are raised in a democracy, in a democratic polity, right courses to start with and trying to understand what is it agitating the mind of the concerned people. When I go back, I will these matters with Mr. Rahul Gandhi. He has asked for a meeting with me and I will also take my cabinet colleagues in to confidence. We will see which way the wind blows. Well, there is no question of resigning ……

“I don’t think we are in an authoritarian structure in which one person lays down the line all the way and therefore my humble feeling is that when a point of view has been expressed, we must sit together and understand what is agitating the mind of the personwho has raised the issue and that is what we will do.”

On BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s vitriolic election campaign targeting the Congress party, Dr. Singh said all secular forces should come together to face the onslaught of people like Modi’s onslaught on the people and said that the people and added that he has every reason to believe that will happen. The government may have made a few mistakes. But, the positives far outweigh those few negatives. The government is concentrating on development and getting the economy back on the fast growth track. The people of India would take into account the good work and the solid achievements of the UPA before they cast their votes.

On the Indo-US bilateral relations and defence co-operation, the prime minister said he had a very successful meeting with President Obama. “Well in the area of defence cooperation, we are trying to move away from the buyer-seller relationship to one based on co-production and co-research, and the outcome of the deliberations on defence cooperation is in line with our own thinking. We would like our domestic industry get involved in domestic production …… There is now an early works agreement between Westinghouse and our NPCIL. At the inter-governmental level, there are no irritants in the implementation.”

On Pakistan, the prime minister said: “I sincerely hope and pray that Nawaz Shariff achieves success. His is a democratically elected government. We had a good meeting in a cordial atmosphere. He seemed to appreciate our concerns with regard to the need for peace along the LoC and the menace of terrorism vitiating the bilateral relations. We agreed to take the first step making the director general of military operations (DGMO) from both the countries to meet and resolve issues.”

On the failed pacts with Bangladesh, the prime minister said the government is firm on sorting out the matter and implement the agreements. “Our relations with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh are very good. I am my disappointed that it has taken us much too long to ratify the agreement and I have assured her that we have time in the next session of Parliament and we will make every effortto convince our opposition parties who have been a problem up till now to fall in line. With Bangladesh we enjoy excellent relationship. It will continue.” Regarding his not meeting Sri Lanka president Rajapakse on the UNGA sidelines, Dr. Singh said he would have considered if the dates suggested were not ahead of his New York schedule.

On another question on huge surge of dams, numbering some 350, being planned and built at Arunachal Pradesh, threatening the entire ecosystem in the north-eastern region, the prime minister promised to look into the matter and also made a reference to the dam being built by China at the source of the Brahmaputra in Tibet, saying that he was given to understand that they would not disturb the flow of water as they were not meant for storage.