 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Congress' heir apparent Rahul Gandhi will be one of the key speakers of the party during the debate on Monday's confidence motion in which Leader of Opposition L K Advani is also expected to participate.
Coverage: An Alliance in Crisis
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will move the motion in the Lok Sabha with a one-line motion -- That this House expresses its confidence in the Council of Ministers -- with an opening speech.
He is expected to highlight the performance of his four-year-old government and emphasise how and why the Indo-US nuclear deal is beneficial to the country in the long term.
'The MIM has been given Rs 5,000 crore'
At the end of the two-day debate, he is also expected to reply to it before the motion is put to vote.
Rahul Gandhi, along with top leaders of the Congress as also its supporting parties are expected to participate in the discussion. These include Congress Ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Saifuddin Soz, and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who was part of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee.
Shahid Siddiqui: Why I joined the BSP
Other Union Ministers Kapil Sibal, Vayalar Ravi, Ram Vilas Paswan, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Praful Patel, M Ramadass, Sachin Pilot, Krishna Tirath and Kanimozhi will also speak on the behalf of the UPA.
'It has become like a game of the mafia now'
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the Leader of Lok Sabha, could be intervening in the two-day long discussion.
Nuclear tips for speakers
On the eve of the Trust motion, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon briefed most of the UPA speakers, including Rahul Gandhi, on the intricate details of nuclear deal to prepare them well for the debate.
Watch out for a nail biting finish!
Narayanan and Menon told them about the nuances and details of the Indo-US nuclear deal and the draft safeguards agreement during the about an hour-long session at the South Block in New Delhi.
The briefing to equip key speakers with intricate details of the deal and its benefits came in the backdrop of Left parties and opposition NDA planning to pin down the government on the issue.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was the Government's chief negotiator with the Left on the deal, was also present at the briefing.