Washington: Amid a fierce debate over outsourcing of jobs to countries like India in the crucial election year, US officials have assured a delegation of Indian Parliamentarians and businessmen that offshoring is here to stay despite campaign rhetoric.

The delegation, which met Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Deputy Assistant to the President Robert Blackwill among others, was assured that outsourcing was here to stay notwithstanding campaign rhetoric which should not be confused with policy.

The high-level delegation, comprising top industrialists like Ficci Secretary General Amit Mitra and V K Modi and young lawmakers such as Sachin Pilot and Jitin Prasad, also met several other senior officials, senators and various think-tank leaders, Co-Chairman of the Indo-US Parliamentary Forum B J Ponda said on Friday (Sep 10, 2004). Both the sides expressed satisfaction that the Indo-US relations were progressing very well despite change of guard in New Delhi. The Americans expressed confidence that in US too there was bipartisan support for deepening relations.

Besides Armitage and Blackwill, the delegation met Undersecretary for Policy at the Pentagon Douglas Feith, Undersecretary in the Commerce Department and the official in charge of US-India High Technology Cooperation Group Ken Juster and Assistant Secretary of Transportation Karan Bhatia.

At the Pentagon, the delegation had a pleasant surprise when Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz dropped in for an unscheduled meeting, Ponda said.

The business delegation comprised Ponda, Mitra, Modi and Onkar Kanwar while the Parliamentary team included Prasad, Pilot, Milind Deora and Manavendra Singh.