We were saying our goodbyes, when Chandraswamy produced his sartorial bomb. Turning to me he said “Kunwar Sahib, kindly tell Mrs Thatcher that on Tuesday she should wear a red poshak."

Natwar Singh, India's former external affairs minister, remembers the leader who tried, unsuccessfully, to salvage the USSR, a country that was already in decline due to the policies of his predecessors.