Last updated on: January 03, 2014 19:31 IST

'Under Narendra Modi's leadership, we will be able to regain our rightful place in the community of nations,' veteran diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri, who joined the BJP on January 2, tells Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.

Hardeep Singh Puri, a 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday, January 2.

Puri joins a long list of diplomats like Mani Shankar Aiyar, Meira Kumar, K Natwar Singh and the late Romesh Bhandari of the Congress and the late Brajesh Mishra of the Bharatiya Janata Party who have made the transition from diplomacy to realpolitik smoothly.

Puri's personal friendship with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley is well-known, so his entry into the party has not created much surprise.

In fact, a former diplomat, whois also Puri's friend, wryly enquired, "Has Puri joined the BJP today, really? When did he leave?"

In a free-wheeling conversation with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, Puri dismissed allegations about maintaining close links with the BJP during his tenure as a senior member of the Indian Foreign Service.

"That is not true at all," said Puri, adding, "When I was Permanent Representative (to the United Nations), I was equally close to people from all political parties, so I will not accept this (charge of being close to the BJP)."

"Arun Jaitley is somebody I have grown up with. We studied at the same university. I have worked with various other people. (Congress General Secretary) Digvijaya Singh has stayed in my residence in New York."

"So don't say I am close to X or