Obama to address Parliament on November 8

United States President Barack Obama, who will undertake his first state visit to India in November, will address Parliament on November 8, a day before the winter session of Parliament is set to begin.

A decision on convening the session from November 9 to December 13 was taken at a recent meeting of the cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs.

Obama will address members of both the Houses on the evening of November 8. Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal told PTI that the CCPA has decided to recommend to the President that the session be summoned on November 9 subject to exigencies and it may conclude on December 13.

Reports said that the White House has advanced Obama's visit to India by two days and he will be landing here on the night of November 5. He is also likely to make a meaningful gesture by flying directly to Mumbai, the scene of the 26/11 terrorist attack.

The US President is scheduled to address a US-India Business and Entrepreneurship Summit in Mumbai on November 6 and would be heading to Amritsar before he reaches Delhi.

Obama, who took over as US President in January last year, will be undertaking his first state visit to India for pushing the bilateral ties to new heights. Former US President Bill Clinton had addressed a joint session of Parliament during his visit in 2000.

Obama's predecessor George W Bush, who visited India in March 2006, did not have the honour of addressing the joint session of Parliament of the world's largest democracy.

Initially, Bush was tipped to address the joint session but the plan was dropped when the Left parties threatened to boycott it. The Left parties were critical of Bush over the war in Iraq.