Uproar in House over Indo-US defence pact

The BJP walked out of the Lok Sabha on Tuesday saying it was dissatisfied by the foreign minister's clarification of the defence agreement.

The BJP wants to know why the government agreed to any monitoring at all by America of India's military bases and equipment; the Left too joined in as did some allies.

The UPA was under pressure defending its joint statement with the United States during Hillary Clinton's visit. But it wasn't enough to pacify the Opposition which staged a walkout.

Earlier in the day India's former foreign minister accused his successor of giving in to the Americans. The Opposition on Tuesday attacked the UPA government for agreeing to Americans at India's military facilities to inspect weapons and goods bought from the US.

Predictably, other Opposition parties, especially the Left too joined in and they were not alone; even UPA allies like Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav were on the Opposition's side.

This is the second time in as many days that the UPA has been cornered over a foreign policy issue.

On Friday, the prime minister was forced to make a statement on the Indo-Pak meetings in Egypt. To squash perceptions that India had capitulated to Pakistan on two issues - delinking terror from the composite dialogue process and allowing Baluchistan to figure in an Indo-Pak joint statement for the first time in history.