There is a commitment on the part of both China and India that peace and tranquillity on the border is a pre-requisite for progress in our relationship. So, there is this recognition and on the whole there has been peace on the Indo-China border. I am reasonably satisfied that the Chinese leadership is as serious as we are in ensuring peace and tranquillity on the Indo-China border.
It's been over three weeks since you met Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York. The firing has not only increased at the Line of Control (LoC) but also along the border, are you disappointed with Nawaz Sharif and if Pakistan continues to fire, how should we respond prime minister?
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Let me say that I am disappointed, because in the New York meeting, there was a general agreement on both the sides that peace and tranquillity should be maintained on the border, on the LoC as well as on the international border and this has not happened. It has come to me as a big disappointment. We had agreed at that meeting that the ceasefire which was made effective in 2003, if it has held ground for 10 years, it could be made to hold ground later on also. I sincerely hope that at this late hour Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will recognise that this is a development which is not good for either of the two countries.
From the last few weeks or months we are telling by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the CBI has the right to interrogate the prime minister. Don't you think that you have given so much autonomy to them, they are crossing the Laxman Rekha?
Well, let me say that this matter is now in the courts and I wouldn't like to comment on that.
Sir, a day before this departure, the Prime Minister's Office did issue a clarification, there was nothing wrong with the Hindalco allocations. But after you have left India, there have been demands, coming in particularly form the opposition that why shouldn't the prime minister also be open to interrogation, at least questioning by CBI, are you open to questioning by the CBI?
I am not above the law of the land. If there is anything that the CBI, or for that matter, anybody wants to ask, I have nothing to hide.
Sir, yesterday, Rahul Gandhi has spoken about the possibility that he could also be killed the way his grandmother and father were killed. Does the government have any information of any threat to him or anybody targeting him or is it the hate politics of the opposition parties that are making him say that?
Well, I and all sane persons should be worried about the politics of hate which is now sweeping our country. As regards, the threat to the life of Rahul Gandhi, the government will take all possible precautions that this threat does not materialise.
Over the last few years, the Supreme Court has been very active in ordering and monitoring probes in the various alleged corruption scandals. Do you think that overactive role of the Court is helping the Executive in dealing with issues or is it contributing to what your critics term policy paralysis.
I wouldn't like to go into what is happening in the Court. The Supreme Court is the final court of our country. I wouldn't like to comment on what the Court does or what the Court does not.
You have responded to questions on the CBI cases regarding coal allocations. Your statement before we left for Russia was very categorical. The statement said that there was no wrongdoing in the case referred to by CBI regard to Kumar Mangalam Birla and the case against the former coal secretary. But Sir, all these cases, and you also say that you are not above the law, you are open to answering to questions from anyone. But do all these cases that have acquired a certain political colour, are these cases in some ways, casting shadows on your prime ministership and your legacy at the 10 years at the helm of this country.
That is for history to judge. I am doing my duty. I will continue to do my duty. What impact my 10 years of prime ministership will have is something which is for historians to judge.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign seems to be up and running for the 2014 elections, the Congress party is slow on the off take. How do you expect to meet this challenge?
Well, I think the Congress party is quite active. I don't share your view that the Congress is not active enough. I think the BJP may have started early, but I think it will also peak early. Slow and steady, I think, is the thing which sometimes works in public life as well and I am confident that the Congress will come out victorious in the 2014 elections.
In the last 9 years, there have been a lot of scams and then there was a big issue of price rise and also the resignation of two senior ministers. Do you think these kind of things have hit your credibility, particularly United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II and because your credibility is low, people such as Narendra Modi, his popularity is rising. Can you help us analyse this?
First of all, I would say the "scams" that you are referring to, took place not in UPA-II, they took in UPA-I. After that we had a general election. The Congress party won in that election hands down and I am sure when the result of 2014 is out, the country will once again be surprised.