In an apparent indication of the battle campaign that will inevitably come when mid-term polls may be forced next year, Left rhetoric against the UPA sharpened on Monday as they prepared to hit the streets from Tuesday to protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Signalling out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, just days after it struck a deal with him and the Congress leadership to pull the government out of danger, the Left on Monday rubbished his claims that the country’s foreign policy will not change due to the deal and said it was ??not borne out by his government’s record??. They also described him as US President George Bush’s best friend, a left-handed compliment.
??The obsession with a strategic partnership with the US is driven by a belief that the US will help India become a superpower. This distorted great power ambition of the Indian policy makers is based on an acceptance of the US leadership and an abandoning of the long cherished goals of non-alignment,?? the CPI(M) central committee said in a pamphlet to be circulated during its five-day campaign starting from Tuesday against the quadrilateral Naval exercise at Bengal coast.
The Left?s rallies, in the form of jathas, to Visakhapatnam will start from both Kolkata and Chennai. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat is the captain of the jatha from Chennai. Senior Left leaders such as D Raja, K Varadharajan and G Devarajan will be members of the rally. In Kolkata, senior CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu will flag off the rally to be lead by CPI general secretary AB Bardhan. West Bengal secretary of the CPI(M) Biman Bose will also include in the team.
The campaign materials, brought out as five different pamphlets, have also reiterated that that the deal has ??little to do with the interests of India or the Indian people.?? ??The PM has stated that Bush is the greatest friend of India and he has helped India in this deal. In his own country George Bush is regarded as the most unpopular President and has the lowest public ratings. So how come a man who is not friendly to his own people has suddenly become India?s best friend??? one pamphlet, titled ??Don?t proceed with the nuclear deal,?? read.
Claiming that the strategic relations with the US has serious implications for the Indian economy, the CPI(M) said: ??It is basically the interests of corporate India not the aam aadmi, which lie at the heart of the Indo-US strategic alliance.
