By IANS
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has criticised the “hesitation” of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to oppose the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo from Serbia, alleging it indicated New Delhi “did not want to appear to be in dissonance with the US”.
Pointing out that India was also facing a number of secessionist demands since independence, the CPI(M) said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government should have been “categorical” on the “blatant violation of national sovereignty and the brazen use of force to redraw territorial boundaries” in Kosovo.
“That it has not done so, speaks a lot about the predilections of the UPA government. On no major issue of international significance, does the government want to appear to be in dissonance with the United States,” the CPI-M said editorially in the latest issue of the party mouthpiece People’s Democracy.
“At least on such a vital issue as the sovereignty of countries with minority populations and the challenge to a basic principle of international law, India should speak up,” the CPI-M said.
“As for the latest act of imperialist impudence, the creation of a NATO protectorate in the Balkans does not augur well for peace and stability in the region,” the party warned.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia Feb 17, ending a long chapter in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia but has cemented a bitter ethnic frontline in the Balkans. The US has announced its support for the Muslim-populated Kosovo.
Kosovo has been under United Nations supervision since 1999, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing forced a withdrawal of Serb forces that had been attacking the province’s ethnic Albanian majority.
The editorial said the destruction of Yugoslavia was part of the US plan initiated for control of the Balkans, a region crucially connected to the energy resources of the Caspian basin. It pointed out that the declaration of independence by the Kosovan parliament has come when 16,000 NATO troops are present in the province.
It alleged that “from ‘humanitarian interventions’ to the ‘war on terror’, the US imperial ideologues have arrogated to the West the right to militarily intervene and carve out protectorates. The occupation of Iraq preceded by the Kurdish protectorate in the north is founded on this imperial doctrine”.
The CPI-M pointed out that India’s foreign ministry has come out with an ambiguous stand on Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence. The foreign ministry spokesperson has said that the government was “studying the evolving situation” as there were “serious legal issues involved in the declaration”.
Quoting the foreign ministry spokesperson, the editorial said: “He also said, ‘It has been India’s consistent position that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be fully respected by all states.’
“If that is so, it applies to Serbia too. Then why is the government of India taking shelter behind studying the ‘serious legal issues,?” it asked.