No troops to Iraq, PM assures House

Natwar faces opposition fire

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had to issue a statement that the government had no intentions of sending troops to Iraq, as External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh came under fire for his remarks on the issue that he had allegedly made to the overseas press while on his visit to the US.

The Lok Sabha erupted with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena members alleging that Singh had said that India was open to the idea of committing its troops to Iraq.

As senior BJP leaders including Ananth Kumar and S Bangarappa shouted down Natwar Singh, the Prime Minister had to state the government's position to deflect fire.

Natwar Singh kept denying that he had made any such statement to the press and that he had not deviated from the consensus opinion reached under the BJP regime that no troops would be deployed in Iraq.

He also said his statement had been misrepresented and that he had held a press conference the next day to clarify his position.

Some Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders also pointed out that the BJP had in fact been lukewarm to the idea of the passing a resolution condemning the war in Iraq and even then had only allowed the resolution to be passed in Hindi.

"Now that you are in the Opposition, you have changed your tune," said Raghunath Jha (RJD).

Finally, when the situation could not be brought under control, the Prime Minister had to intervene and declare that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government would not be making any such decisions without taking the House into confidence.

"Whenever there is any move to make changes in the foreign policy, there will an effort to gather the widest consensus possible on the issues," he said. The UPA government had "no intentions of sending troops to Iraq," he added.

Despite this, members of the BJP and the NDA partners staged a symbolic walkout after the Prime Minister's statement.