By IANS,
Kolkata: The CPI-M Wednesday condemned the US for using radio tags to keep track of Indian students and took potshots at Prime Ministyer Manmohan Singh, saying the victims were reaping the “dividends” for his “love for the US”.
Recalling that Manmohan Singh had many times described former US president George Bush as a “close friend”, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said: “He had also said once in Washington that Indian people were very fond of Bush. And he had said this despite Bush killing lakhs of innocent people by invading Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“Now the Indian students in the US are reaping the dividends for the fondness. The future of a large number of Indian students has become uncertain because of the policy adopted by the country our prime minister is so fond of,” CPI-M’s Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti said in an editorial.
Condemning the US, the daily said: “Radio collars are used to track animals and now they are using such kind of devices to keep a track on Indian students in the US. It’s an insult. The use of these devices is making Indian students vulnerable in that country.”
The Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, was raided last week and charged with helping foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status. Some 1,555 students of Tri-Valley University, 95 percent of them from India, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, face the prospect of deportation following the university’s closure.
Throughout last week, Indian TV channels have telecast visuals of Indian students with radio trackers around one ankle, apparently to monitor their movements. India had termed the move “unacceptable”.
“USA has not paid any heed to the protests lodged by the India’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The American authorities have categorically said the Indian students will have to continue wearing the trackers till the probe on the matter comes to an end,” it said.
“We are yet to know whether the prime minister’s deep affection for the US has eroded a bit now. It is also not clear to us whether he feels that Indians deeply love US president Barack Obama,” the editorial said in sarcasm.