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Cong. to join MPs' team: Govt.
By Javed M. Ansari
NEW DELHI, JAN. 11. A forty-five minute meeting this evening between the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, sorted out the misunderstanding which had led to a stand-off between the Congress and the Government on the issue of MPs' delegation going abroad. The Government confirmed that the Congress leaders would now participate in this exercise.
Today's meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and Ms. Gandhi was held at the Prime Minister's invitation. Keen on limiting the damage to the effort to sustain a political consensus on the issue of cross-border terrorism, Mr. Vajpayee invited Ms. Gandhi for consultations. The Congress was reportedly upset that the Government had not consulted it in advance while deciding the names of party leaders who were expected to travel abroad.
According to Government sources, Ms. Gandhi suggested during the meeting the names of some of her party leaders in response to the Government's request. The Congress maintains that it will make its potion on the names cleared after internal consultations on Saturday. While the list is being given final shape, it is reliably learnt that senior Congress leader, Manmohan Singh, who was to have led one of the delegations, is unlikely to travel abroad, as he is required to campaign for the party during the coming Assembly elections. The Congress also confirmed that a meeting between the two leaders had taken place.
The change of heart on the part of the Congress came after the intervention of the Prime Minister. The party had stuck to its guns earlier in the day, and even though the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary. Brajesh Mishra, spoke to Dr. Manmohan Singh, it was apparently not enough to make the Congress change its mind. ``Nothing has happened since yesterday to make us change our stand,'' said the party spokesperson, Jaipal Reddy.
The party had dismissed Mr. Brajesh Mishra's attempts to clear the misunderstanding as ``purely an inquiry''. What the party was miffed at is that apparently when Mr. Mishra spoke Dr. Manmohan Singh he did not ``make any new proposals or offer any explanations about why the issue was handled the way it was''.
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