Thaindian News

Washington, June 13 (IANS) Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot and spokespersons of the Congress and the BJP are among 13 MPs from seven parties attending a nine-day leadership programme at Yale University this week.

Global political-economic affairs and the challenges of leadership are the focus of the fifth India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme June 16-25 at the Ivy League university’s New Haven, Connecticut, campus.

It will be complemented by a three-day programme of meetings, discussions, and interactions in New York City, the university announced.

Besides Pilot, who represents Ajmer in the Lok Sabha, and Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari (Ludhiana), the other Congress participants are Bhakta Charan Das (Kalahandi) and Ashok Tanwar (Sirsa).

From the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), besides spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Rajya Sabha, Bihar), the other participants are Sanjay Jaiswal (Paschim Champaran) and Piyush Goyal (Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra).

The Nationalist Congress Party is represented by Supriya Sule (Baramati) and Ranjitsinh Vijaysingh Mohite Patil (Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra).

The Other participants are: Jose K. Mani (Kerala Congress (M), Kottayam), Baijayant Panda (Biju Janata Dal, Kendrapara), Anand Prakash Paranjpe (Shiv Sena, Kalyan) and Prem Das Rai (Sikkim Democratic Front, Sikkim).

The parliamentarians will be accompanied by Ramesh Chandran, executive director,
India-US Forum of Parliamentarians, and advisor, FICCI.

More than 60 members of India’s parliament will have participated since Yale started the programme in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the India-US Forum of Parliamentarians in 2007.

The programme underscores “Yale’s longstanding commitment to educating our students for service and leadership. We have now gone a step further to include emerging and mid-career leaders,” Yale president Richard C. Levin stated.

“The programme will provide the parliamentarians with opportunities to critically think about the challenges of leadership and to explore freely, away from the legislative arena, the issues facing India,” he said.

The programme “has been widely appreciated by those of us serving in politics. The presentations and discussions cover a range of topics and ideas, by and with some of the top academics in the world, and the setting is excellent for vigorous but non-partisan exchanges of views,” said parliamentary forum chairman Panda.

“Yale University will help the parliamentarians in achieving a greater and more informed engagement in public policy discussions,” said FICCI secretary general Rajiv Kumar.

“With some of the world renowned experts of Yale, the parliamentarians get an opportunity to interact with them on a wide spectrum of global issues as well as on issues relating to leadership and management,” said FICCI President Harsh Mariwala.