Young MPs to be taught finer points of Indo-US nuclear pact

The signing of the Indo-US agreement on nuclear power has created as much confusion as controversy with the issue being turned into a debate in both Houses of Parliament. As the subject is specialised, it left many political parties scrambling for their resident experts to decode the pact.

In order to explain the government's position on the nuclear pact, a briefing of younger members of Parliament has been organised on August 2 under the joint effort of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), Ramesh Chandran of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and Nizamabad MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi.

Minister of State for PMO Prithviraj Chavan, Sanjaya Baru, media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and K Subramanian, strategic studies expert, will explain to MPs the imperatives behind the signing of the agreement. MPs from all parties are expected to attend the meeting.

Among those attending the meeting would be Dushyant Singh and Manvendra Singh (both BJP), Omar Abdullah (National Conference), Mehbooba Mufti (People's Democratic Party), Milind Deora, Sandeep Dikshit and Purandareshwari (Congress), Assaduddin Owaisi, Ravi Chandran (both PMK) and Suravan Sudhakar Reddy (CPI).

The MP's are going to be busy all of next week since on August 4, deputy head of the US mission in India Robert Blake will also be briefing a few MPs on US President George W Bush's visit to India, likely in January 2006.

"This time several MPs from minority communities have been invited since it is important that the views of the US administration be adequately conveyed to them," said an MP involved with the effort.

Again Assaduddin Owaisi, Roberts Keshang of the NCP, Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and Shahid Siddiqui of the Samajwadi Party have been invited.

While the US deputy head of mission's meeting is routine and another in a series of meetings, the briefing by the PMO is significant. "The Prime Minister is determined that Parliament recognises the pact as the path-breaking one and also wants it should be above partisan politics," said a Congress MP.