Ranchi, June 15: External affairs minister Yashwant Sinha today said the prestige the international community has been bestowing on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was unprecendented and this was because of his statesmanship. He said that Vajpayee's international recognition has risen at St Petersburg, where 43 heads of states had congregated to mark the Russian city's 300th anniversary.

"Vajpayee shared the dias for the main feast alongside Russian President Vladmir Putin, US President George W Bush and European Union's present and future heads," Sinha said.

He said, "The invitation by Putin was not accidental, but was done with the full understanding and knowledge of the Russian leadership... No other Indian Prime Minister ever received so much adoration and respect in the past ... I don't think even Pandit Nehru had got such a reception."

A "great change" had taken place in the post-1998 nuke tests period and the world leaders who were discussing to "ostracise" India following the tests were now giving India so much weightage. "This is because tremendous effort that the NDA government under Vajpayee has put in," he added.
Sinha was addressing a state-level party meeting in which BJP's national president Venkaiah Naidu was present.

Bureau Report