Pursuing efforts to garner the Bharatiya Janata Party's support for the India-United States nuclear deal, US Ambassador David Mulford on Monday met senior leaders Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh to assuage their concerns.
During the separate meetings, Mulford discussed details of the 123 agreement and the Hyde Act, particularly the clauses which BJP says will have an impact on India's foreign and strategic policies.
The US envoy is understood to have sought to allay concerns of the former external affairs ministers and convince the BJP that India's interests would not be hurt.
Sinha said the meeting with Mulford was meant for an exchange of views on the nuclear issue but did not elaborate.
Mulford refused to comment.
The meetings came a day after Sinha ruled out BJP's support unless the Hyde Act and 123 agreement were changed, removing elements that are "unacceptable" to his party.
On the saffron party's demand for Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal, Sinha said, "Any decision in this regard will have to be taken by the party's parliamentary board after Parliament is convened."
Mulford earlier met Leader of Opposition L K Advani and BJP President Rajnath Singh as part of exercise to seek support for the deal.
The saffron party, however, has maintained it cannot accept the deal in its "present form" and vowed to oppose the pact when it comes up for debate in Parliament.
