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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will try to convince opposition party BJP and the Left parties on India-US agreements
It was a total victory for the two largest democracies and the free world when India and America decided to become true friend and be there for each other. But the saga does not end there. Now it is turn of India’s Prime Minister to convince the opposition leaders and the communists of India called left party alliance.
According to media sources, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a series of meetings this week with leaders of various political parties to explain to them the details of the India-US Joint Statement issued after his historic summit with President George W Bush in Washington last Monday, official sources said.
The meetings will be part of Dr Singh's efforts to build a broad national consensus on the momentous agreement under which the United States implicitly recognised India as a nuclear weapons state and offered it full cooperation in the country's civil nuclear energy programe.
The two sides also agreed to cooperate in a variety of other areas, including trade and economy, energy and environment, democracy and development, and high technology and space.
The Prime Minister will make a suo motu statement on his three-day state visit to the US in Parliament, which will begin its monsoon session on Monday.
The move for the meetings with political parties comes in the wake of criticism of the agreement from the Left parties, the main ally of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), as well as from the BJP and other opposition parties.
For the US, the statement marks a major reversal of a policy that had been in existence for more than 30 years after India's 1974 Pokhran tests. As far as India is concerned, the deal will give it access to the latest technologies and materials for its civil nuclear energy programme, seen as crucial to the country's energy security.
The statement described India as a "responsible state with advanced nuclear technology" and said it should acquire the same "benefits and advantages" as other such states. It also agreed to consider resumption of fuel supplies for safeguarded nuclear reactors at Tarapur.
The Left parties said India had conceded more to the US than what it had got in return and plan to oppose the agreement both inside and outside Parliament. They said the statement was a continuation of the pro-American shift in India's foreign policy.
The BJP and other Opposition parties described the statement as a "sell out" to the US.
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