Call For Independent Policy

India’s US Tilt In Foreign Policy Flayed

THE Committee for an Independent Foreign Policy, led by the Left parties and others, would be hitting the ground in various states, in a phased programme which would find its echoes in parliament. This became clear at the concluding function of a two meetings in Delhi, starting with a meeting of experts and culminating with a clarion call by four Left parties and others to the government to make amends next month for voting against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting on November 24.

Setting the tone for coming days CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said: “The issue comes up for voting at the IAEA meeting on November 24, and the United States would try and refer the case to the UN Security Council. India should state that Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy in accordance with “international norms”. He strongly stressed that the government would have to reconsider its earlier stand.

He indicated that in the coming days rallies would be held in Kolkata and Lucknow followed by Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Karat said the committee included the four Left parties, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi Party. It had the support of 100 MPs and would raise the issue in the winter session of Parliament. “We do not agree that foreign policy can be decided only in the chambers of the prime minister’s office and External Affairs Minister’s office. Parliament should discuss it.” Charging the prime minister with going back on the stand he articulated to the Left leaders on Iran, Karat said the clarification now being offered by the government that the vote in the IAEA was to help Iran amounted to “insulting the people of India and treachery... We are for an independent foreign policy and one that is in our national interest.”

While asserting that Iran as an independent country had the right to pursue a nuclear policy in its interest, he said the nation, as a signatory to the nuclear proliferation treaty, was bound by IAEA norms.

Criticising the United States, the CPI(M) leader said while it allowed Israel to develop nuclear weapons, it denied the same to Iran and Arab countries. “Is this some international law?” Iran had already declared that it was not going to produce weapons but would develop technology for nuclear energy. It was in effect a demand to restore independence in our foreign policy rather than capitulate to the United States.

Hinting at a battle ahead, he said, “Together, six parties opposing India’s anti-Iran vote have nearly 100 MPs.”

Karat said the Indian vote on September 24, was “shameful” since till two days earlier it kept saying Iran has the right to develop nuclear technology as long as it follows in­ternational covenants.

“But on the night of September 24, the message went to Vienna that India should vote in favour of resolution moved by US. The resolution says that Iran ‘should stop nuclear development. Which independent nation would like it?” he asked.

Explaining that India’s decision is not only against its age-old policy of non-align­ment but has also been done to win the US support for nuclear cooperation and missile agreement.

According to Karat, instead of nuclear en­ergy which US is offering, India needs gas which Iran has promised. “In such a sce­nario, is it good for us to go against Iran? Why should we be a party to the US move? We have become a junior partner of the US,”

Karat said, giving a background of how in the past America in its endeavour for oil has attacked Afghanistan and Iraq. “Now, it is the turn of Iran. Tomorrow, it would be Syr­ia. Already, there is a plan to take over Lebanon,” he said.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said that since the days of the previous National Democratic Alliance government, pressure had been exerted and had the people not resisted, India would have sent troops to Iraq. Ridiculing the attitude of “bending over backwards” before the US, Bardhan said even low-ranking state department officials got audience with the prime minister. “Shaking hands with the US president is the ultimate for Indian leaders.”

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav decried the US “bullying tactics.” Unless India stopped joining hands with the US, a crisis might soon engulf it. Countries in West Asia might turn against the country, he said. The government, which promised to pursue an independent foreign policy, should realise that Washington could dump India if its commercial interest was not served.

Manoj Bhattacharya of the Revolutionary Socialist Party said the Congress did not appear to learn from history. The US was worried over the possibility of India joining hands with China and Russia. Subroto Bose of the All-India Forward Bloc and Danish Ali of the Janata Dal (Secular) spoke in the rally organised on the lawns of Constitution Club in New Delhi on October 29. (INN)