Concerned Left doubts US' growing closeness to India

The Communist Party of India has expressed 'deep concern' over the government of India's policies which, it claimed, are leading to a close strategic partnership between India and the United States of America.

Inaugurating the five-day 20th congress of the party in Hyderabad on Sunday, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan also accused the government of 'wilfully violating the Common Minimum Programme, which commits the United Progressive Alliance to pursue an independent foreign policy aimed at promoting multi-polarity in world relations and opposing all attempts at unilateralism-which is what the US pursues.'

Stating that the congress was being held at a 'very critical time in the country', Bardhan said: "We are watching with deep concern the government's policies, which step by step are leading to a close strategic partnership between India and the US. Our party, along with other Left parties, strongly opposed each of these steps."

"The much-debated Indo-US nuclear deal is not just an innocent attempt to gain access to nuclear energy, but an attempt to cap the strategic partnership. The Hyde Act, which governs this agreement, contains a number of restrictive, intrusive and extraneous clauses that are derogatory to our sovereignty and the pursuit of an untrammelled and independent foreign policy," the CPI leader said.

Referring to the India-specific safeguards agreement recently negotiated by government with the International Atomic Energy Agency, he said: "This is on the agenda of our joint UPA-Left Committee, though we are not yet at grips with the substance of this agreement. But, as we have often stated, we have no problems with the Safeguard Agreement. Our opposition is to the Indo-US nuclear agreement."

He recalled the large-scale naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal led by the US Navy, which was joined by ships of the Indian Navy. The Left vigorously acted against this and roused the country against the imperialist design behind it, he noted.

"The government is entering into huge deals with the military-industrial complex in America for purchase of military hardware. India has also become a major buyer of military equipment from Israel -- a military outpost of the US in the Middle East, which enables it to carry on its aggressive designs against those countries, and indulge in its piratical attacks on Gaza and localities inhabited by Palestinians. India even helped to send an Israeli satellite into space for spying on Iran, justifying it as a commercial enterprise," he observed. 

Bardhan made it clear that the Left wanted friendship with all countries, including America, 'but subservience to none'.

"We realize that US imperialism's real plan is to impose its hegemony over the world. It has a grand design over Asia, which includes India as an ally. It selectively attacks countries, calling for regime changes and targeting some Islamic countries on spurious and fake grounds. Its war on global terrorism has generated more terrorists than eliminating them," he added.

Asserting that the CPI would always hold high the banner of anti-imperialism in its activities, he pointed out: "After five years of the most destructive and genocidal war on Iraq, the US has failed to subdue the Iraqi people fighting for their liberation from American troops."

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, who also addressed the CPI Congress as the leader of other left allies, said: "Left parties have been in the forefront of the struggle against the Indo-US nuclear deal. We should continue the fight against the military collaboration agreement with the United States."

He exhorted the Left parties to wage the battle for disengaging India from the strategic embrace of the United States.

He said that the CPI Congress was being held at a time 'when the world capitalist system is in turmoil'.

"The US is heading for a recession, the depth of which is still to unfold. The crisis in the financial system has reached alarming proportions. The sub-prime and mortgage crisis has already led to thousands of people in the United States losing their homes."

"We, Communists, have had no illusions about the nature of globalised finance capital and imperialist globalization. We have doggedly fought the neo-liberal policies being imposed in India. At this juncture, it should be noted that it is our opposition to full capital account convertibility that has saved the country from a worse plight," Karat observed. 

"If we are partially protected from the ravages of the financial crisis, it is due to the fact that the country has not yet gone for free unregulated flows of capital," he said, feeling that 'the aftermath of the current crisis should hopefully sober up the ruling establishment, which has been euphoric in embracing the free market and neo-liberal prescriptions'.