Kolkata Mass Convention Demands An Independent Indian Foreign Policy

B Prasant

Anil Biswas addressing the convention in Kolkata

THE Bengal Left Front-convened mass convention in Kolkata on November 13 resolved in favour of the country following the path of an independent foreign policy.  The union government, the convention resolution stated must not allow itself to be pressurised by the United States to toe the imperialist line in framing the foreign policy determinants.

The mass convention was held in the afternoon at the centenary hall of the Kolkata University.  Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Basu presided over the meeting that was attended by a large number of noted personalities.

Anil Biswas in his address to the convention was quite unambiguous in stating that after one-and-a-half years in governance, it was yet not made clear as to whether the union government of the UPA was willing to cooperate with the imperialist forces or with the Left in framing its politics.

The way in which the UPA government was appearing to be eager to towing the imperialist line in the pursuit of its foreign policy goals – as was seen in the issue of Indo-US defence and nuclear treaties – reinforced the doubt that it was perceptibly on the back foot in the matter of following an independent foreign policy.

Criticising the shift affected by India on the issue of Iran, Anil Biswas said that the entire affair was sad and alarming at the same time. India had taken part in the oil for food programme in an invaded and a beleaguered Iraq along with many other countries. Suddenly, the discredited US administration has chosen to make an investigation into the oil for food programme, and it has come up with several motivated conclusions.  It is India who would decide where it send forth and despatch food supply, said Anil Biswas and he warned that the US must have nothing to do with the decision. Yet, the union government subsequently went to bow before US wishes.

The removal of the Indian foreign minister Natwar Singh from his post, said Anil Biswas, was done at the behest of the US, which had earlier criticised the foreign minister for his stand on Iraq. By moving away from the food for oil programme in Iraq, said Anil Biswas, India committed a blunder and sounded a retreat, all at the behest of US imperialist diktat.

On the question of Iran, too, the Indian stand has been to subserve US interests.  By voting against Iran at the IAEA meeting, India has simply strengthened the hands of the US imperialism.  Citing this as surrender to the US, Anil Biswas concluded to say that if the union government continued to kow-tow to US dictates in this fashion, the issue of support by the Left to the UPA government would become open to question.

Biman Basu who raised the resolutions of the convention said that the US was keen on extending its hegemony over the world.  The US had clamped down an occupation force on Iraq because it wanted to establish control over that oil-rich country.  It was willing to build up a case against Iran in order to get at Iran’s oil resources as well. 

India, said Biman Basu, should move away from supporting and justifying the imperialist policy of the US, and should devote itself to strengthening India’s independent foreign policy. The Left would not take the rightist turn in India’s foreign policy lying down, declared the speaker.  It would carry on a relentless campaign-movement and wage struggles to force the union government to change tack and move away from its present penchant for supporting moves of the US.

Other speakers at the convention included Manjulkumar Majumdar (CPI), Naren De (Forward Bloc), Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP), and Amar Singh (Samajwadi Party) who had come down to Kolkata to attend and address the convention.                                                                                                        

(B Prasant)