The long-awaited discussion on the Indo-US nuclear deal will take place in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee on Monday.The debate, as ruled by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee during the last session, would be under Rule 193, which does not entail voting. The debate comes at a time when the opposition of both the Left and Right parties to the deal has lost its momentum. The Left has been sobered by Nandigram developments. The BJP, which had blocked a discussion on the issue during the Monsoon Session, has now taken the stand that it favours a debate no matter which rule facilitates it. Sources said the House would have taken up the matter on Tuesday, but for a one-day visit of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Bangladesh.Given the large number of notices, it is not clear who would get to open the debate. However, BJP parliamentary party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra told The Indian Express: “As far as we are concerned, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani would speak first from our side.”Sources said the Upper House is likely to debate the deal on December 3.Meanwhile, the BJP is gearing up to raise the issue of Taslima Nasreen in the House on Tuesday. Malhotra said the BJP has given a Zero Hour notice on the matter and hopefully, the Speaker will allow it. The notice was there on Monday also, but the impromptu discussion on UP bomb blasts in the aftermath of a statement by Home Minister Shivraj Patil consumed most of the time.The Business Advisory Committee also agreed to discuss price-rise and internal security, apart from resuming the incomplete discussion on the judiciary-legislature-executive relations, during the current week.
