BUSH VISIT TO INDIA CHAT WITH EXPERTS

The Bush Visit:
Chat with the Experts

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US President George W Bush's visit to India from March 1 to 3 is a landmark event.

The last American President from Bush's Republican party to visit India was Richard Milhous Nixon in 1969. But while that journey was undertaken in an atmosphere of animosity -- between the two governments as well as between Nixon and then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi -- the Bush visit comes on the crest of never seen before cordiality between the world's largest and richest democracies.

The much talked about nuclear deal is just one facet to the visit. There are other aspects to the cooperation between New Delhi and Washington, DC -- strategic, economic, technological and agricultural -- that are expected to be given a boost during the president's passage to India.

Rediff.com has invited many experts in India and the US to discuss the Bush visit on the Rediff Chat.

Independent strategic analyst and author of Pakistan's Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99 In Search of a Policy, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution Stephen P Cohen , South Asia specialist at John Hopkins University Dr Walter Andersen, Former Indian Ambassador to Washington Naresh Chandra, Deputy Editor of The Hindu, Siddharth Vardarajan, Ambassador TP Sreenivasan, CPI National Secretary Doraiswamy Raja , and The Wall Street Journal's Senior Correspondent for South Asia Peter Wonacott have already taken part in these chats.

Others who will grace the Rediff Chat in coming days are:

Dr Sumit Ganguly, Tagore Professor of Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University and adviser to the Central Intelligence Agency, Friday March 3, 11 pm.

Leonard Weiss, former staff director of the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the chief architect of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of 1978, which will have to be changed or amended for the nuclear deal to go through in Congress, Monday March 6, 8.30 pm

Strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney, Tuesday, March 7, 4.30 pm.

President Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Henry L Stimson Center and South Asia expert Michael Krepon, Thursday, March 9, 9.30 pm

Don't miss this rare opportunity to debate the issues involved with the experts!