When it comes to India’s relations with the United States, there is nothing ‘accidental’ about Manmohan Singh. His incredible assertion to President George W. Bush that most Indians ‘love’ him aside, “he knew exactly what he wanted and what the red lines were”, as argued by Manmohan’s advisors associated with the negotiations that led to the landmark US-India nuclear deal in October 2008. “He strongly believed that this was the right move for India,” such advisors argue. American leaders well understood Manmohan’s determinedness on the issue. Donald Rumsfeld, the former US secretary of defence, unhesitatingly accepted that the US was dealing with a ‘changed India’. What was exceptional about Manmohan was that while he was committed to a nuclear agreement with the US, he deeply appreciated the need to keep India free from restraint, and this when, in fact, India had zero cards in a game of nuclear aces.