Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Saturday defended India's decision to vote against Iran on the International Atomic Energy Agency resolution, claiming that it had been taken keeping in mind the fact that the Islamic nation was a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
He was responding to a question on whether India had toed America's line over Iran's nuclear programme.
"An inkling of India's position at the IAEA was given by Prime Minster Manmohan Singh during his just concluded US visit, where he clarified that India does not support Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions," he said.
"As know for many years we were accused of cowing-towing to the Soviet Union when there was a Soviet Union -- so this business of accusing people of cow-towing is very much in the eye of the beholder or in the tongue of the critic," he said.
"From our point of view, we are taking a responsible decision on the basis of our judgment on what is in our sovereign national interest. In some cases, that might be a decision that will please a certain capital, or displease another capital -- but ultimately the only capital we are concerned about is New Delhi. And our concern here is, how we do the right thing by the people of India," Tharoor added.
