NEW DELHI: ‘India Chini bhai bhai’ days are here again. Brushing its China phobia under the carpet, New Delhi appears determined to please the Left parties and the Chinese. And the best way to placate the desi comrades is to roll out a red carpet for Chinese President Hu Jintao.
With 2006 billed as the ‘India-China Friendship Year’, the UPA government is planning to convene a joint sitting of Parliament to enable Hu Jintao to address it during his upcoming visit to India, a privilege denied to US President George Bush early this year due to the opposition from the Left MPs.
Jintao is slated to arrive in New Delhi in the third week of November while the winter session of Parliament is likely to commence from November 22 or 23. The government had earlier planned to hold the session from November 27. However, to enable Jintao to address the proposed joint session, Parliament may be convened five days earlier, sources said. Parliamentary affairs minister PR Dasmunshi on Wednesday broached the matter with the Left leaders. He visited the CPI headquarters and discussed plans for the joint session with general secretary AB Bardhan.
CPI (M) politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury, who returned to Delhi from Beijing after a week-long visit, is likely to brief foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and the UPA top brass about his China trip. Yechury’s visit was, inter alia, to lay the groundwork for Jintao’s visit and improve relations between the two countries.
The desi comrades and the Chinese government are keen that New Delhi and Beijing upgrade their ties from strategic cooperation to strategic partnership. In this connection, both want the government of India to desist from blacklisting Chinese firms citing security reasons.
The Left parties were instrumental in aborting President George Bush’s desire to address a joint sitting of Indian Parliament in March. Both Bush and PM Manmohan Singh were keen on the address, but had to drop the idea due to opposition from the Left.
