The US had virtually compelled the P V Narasimha Rao government in 1995 not to conduct nuclear tests after it got to know about preparations for it, a former US official indicated on Monday.
This was said by the then US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott as he sought to discount the 'mole' theory projected by former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh.
"We had photographs" in December 1995 showing preparations being made for the nuclear test in the deserts of Rajasthan, Talbott told reporters in Delhi in response to questions.
He said as soon as the photographic evidence came, the then ambassador to India Frank Wisner, who was in Washington, was "authorised to return to Delhi and actually show one of the photographs to the principal secretary in prime minister Rao's office."
Wisner was asked to convey to the Indian government in the "strongest possible terms the hope of president (Bill) Clinton that if the test was planned, it would not go forward," Talbott said.
"There was a follow-up call from the president to the Indian prime minister," he said adding, that finally the tests did not take place.
