By IANS
Kolkata : Leaders and activists of West Bengal’s ruling Left Front Tuesday set out for Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to join a protest gathering there against five-nation joint naval exercise, also involving the navies of India and the US, in the Bay of Bengal.
The group, comprising 85 members from all constituents of the Left Front and led by Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan, will reach Visakhapatnam Sep 8 via Kharagpur in West Bengal, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in Orissa and Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh.
At Visakkapatnam they will converge with another group of Left leaders and workers coming from Chennai in Tamil Nadu on the same day.
Addressing a gathering at the Park Circus Maidan in south Kolkata, from where the protest journey started, Bardhan said the congregation had been organised as a mark of protest against the Indo-US naval exercise.
Commenting on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, Bardhan added: “The Left parties will continue to oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal even though the centre has appointed a committee to look into the implications of the Hyde Act.
“However, we are ready for talks with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the same time,” he added.
The group was flagged off by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) patriarch Jyoti Basu.
Speaking on the occasion, Basu said the nuclear deal was violative of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) agreed between the Congress-led UPA government and the Left parties supporting it from outside.
The CPI-M earlier said that the Indian armed forces’ increasing involvement with the US forces would push the country to become the US’s “subordinate military ally”.