Opp Leaders Briefed On Tests, Fallout

Finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia and foreign secretary K Raghunath explained the government's assessment of the economic and diplomatic fallout of the Pokhran blasts to leaders of Opposition parties at two special briefings organised for them at the Prime Minister's Office.

Scientists Abdul Kalam and R Chandrashekher explained the technical aspects of the tests and responded to queries.

However, the finance and foreign secretaries had to get into the act when some Opposition leaders wanted to know about the government's assessment of the economic fallout of the sanctions.

Prime Minister A B Vajpayee was present for a short while at the briefing that lasted over an hour and a half.

Talking to reporters later, Prime Minister's political advisor Pramod Mahajan refused to talk about the impact of the economic sanctions on the Union Budget to be presented in Parliament on June 1. However, he said, "We all know it is a post-sanction budget. So, whatever the impact (of sanctions) will be evident (in the budget)".

Mahajan said the government was likely to give a detailed account of its assessment of the possible fallout on the economy in Parliament when it meets for the Budget session on May 27.

He said there was no scope for any political discussion at the meeting as the proper forum for such a debate is Parliament.

The Prime Minister has been in touch with senior leaders of all political parties after the Pokhran blasts.

The leaders who were briefed include Sharad Pawar, Manmohan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Somnath Chatterjee, Indrajit Gupta, Murasoli Maran and P Chidambaram. Ramvilas Paswan was also invited but could not attend the meet. Leaders of alliance parties in the government have already been briefed by the Prime Minister.