Nuke deal good for India, World: PM

New Delhi, Oct 12 (UNI) Rejecting the notion that he had staked his personal prestige on the Indo-US nuclear issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today strongly defended the government stand as it ''is an honourable deal. It is good for India and good for the world.'' ''I do attach importance to the deal. If it does not come through, that is not the end of life,'' Dr Singh said in an interaction with journalists and industrialists at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here.

Seeking to bely predictions that his government was set to fall and face mid-term elections on the issue, Dr Singh said he had not given up hope that better sense would prevail.

Asked about his interview to The Telegraph, daring the Left parties to withdraw their outside support to his government, Dr Singh said he had not over-stepped his limits.

''I am quite conscious of my responsibility and what I should say and what I should not say.'' He, however, denied that he meant to provoke the Left when he said that if the Left wanted to withdraw support, so be it. He had only tried to clarify the government stand.

Asked whether he now felt that he had unnecessarily staked his personal prestige on the deal, he said the UPA was not a one issue government.

UNI