By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian parliament will discuss the contentious nuclear agreement with the US on Nov 27-29 after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returns from Singapore and Uganda.
The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of both houses that met Thursday decided to hold the debate those days because it wanted the prime minister in the house, Left leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury told reporters.
The debate is expected to be the main focus of the winter session, which began its 23-day meeting Thursday.
Manmohan Singh will visit Singapore Nov 20-21 for the ASEAN summit following which he will go to Uganda to attend the Commonwealth summit. He returns on Nov 26.
The BAC has also decided that parliament will not function Friday on the occasion of ‘Chhath pooja’ – a popular festival in Bihar and parts of eastern India.
Earlier Thursday, both houses of parliament were adjourned after mourning the death of two MPs.
While the Rajya Sabha expressed condolences for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP K. Jena Krishnamurthy, the Lok Sabha mourned the demise of V.K. Khandelwal, a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Betul.
In the Lok Sabha, Francisco Sardinha, the newly elected Congress MP from Mormugao, took oath as a member.
Meanwhile, political parties continued their deliberations on the strategy they will adopt during the discussion.
While Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Home Minister Shivraj Patil met at the prime minister’s parliamentary office, leaders of the Left parties met separately.
Although some Communist Party of India (CPI) leaders have announced that they will let the government initiate negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has not clarified its stance.
“Let the government put forward its suggestion. We will discuss it in Friday’s UPA-Left nuclear committee meeting and take a decision,” Yechury said.
He added that contrary to some media reports, the CPI-M does not want the Indo-US nuclear deal made operational unless the concerns expressed by the Left are addressed.
The 15-member United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-Left nuclear committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee, formed to address the concerns of the communists, meets at 4 p.m. Friday.