By IANS
Hyderabad : Lashing out at the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over the India-US civil nuclear deal, senior Left leader Prakash Karat Tuesday said it would have to take a decision “within a few weeks” on whether to go with the US or with the people of India.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary also called for massive protests against the multilateral naval exercise also involving the US in the Bay of Bengal Sep 4-9.
“We are not there to support any strategic alliance with the United States of America through the nuclear agreement,” he said, addressing a public meeting at Mudigonda in Khammam district Tuesday evening.
The meeting was organised to pay homage to seven CPI-M workers killed in police firing on July 28 during an agitation seeking land for the poor.
Karat, whose party along with other Left parties have warned the government against making the nuclear deal operational, alleged that the US, through nuclear cooperation, was pressurizing India to change its independent foreign policy.
According to Karat, the Left parties would organise two protest marches from Kolkata and Chennai to Visakhapatnam to protest the multilateral naval exercise.
“We will meet in Visakhapatnam in a big protest demonstration. I appeal to the people of Andhra Pradesh to mobilise and oppose these naval exercises,” he said.
The CPI-M leader said he himself would lead one protest while Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan would lead the other.
Opposing the naval exercise, Karat reminded the people that it was the same American navy that had threatened India during the liberation of Bangladesh.
“We are opposed to the growing influence of American imperialism in our country, it will be harmful for the Indian people,” he said.
Karat said that the Left had extended support to the UPA government during the last three years only to prevent communal forces like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from coming to power – but at the same time the Left opposed each and every wrong move of the government.
On the ongoing land agitation by the Left parties in Andhra Pradesh, he said it would continue till the Congress government meets the demand for distribution of all surplus government land among the poor.
The public meeting was held as a prelude to the second phase of the agitation beginning Wednesday.