IndiaPost.com - CPI warns PM over friendship with US

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India has cautioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying the United Progressive Alliance government's "friendship with USA could spell doom for him and his regime." "Manmohan Singh should learn a lesson from former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair who was voted out of the office for his friendship with George Bush," said CPI general secretary A B Bardhan.

Bardhan, who addressed a public meeting in Bhubaneswar on his way to Visakhapatnam, said, "USA is never a friend of India nor can it be a friend to any nation in the world." He suggested the prime minister refrain from cultivating friendship with Bush in order to save national interest as well as his government.

The Left leader said Dr Singh had been making a "mistake" by identifying USA as a friend of India. "How can the USA become a friend of India when its hands are red with the blood of the people in Vietnam and Iraq?" he asked. Strongly opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal, Bardhan said, "The Left parties will never allow the UPA government to proceed with the deal."

"I am not sure, something may happen if the UPA government does not change its stand on the issue," he said. Announcing that the Left parties would certainly attend the coming Indo-US nuclear deal committee meeting, Bardhan said he was personally hopeful that the UPA government understand that the USA was not a friend of India.

Asked what steps the Left parties would take if the government did not change its stand on the issue, Bardhan said further course of action would be decided later. "For the time being, we will attend the meeting with a positive mind," he said. While opposing the deal, Bardhan said India does not need anybody's help, including that of USA, to carry forward its nuclear program. "So far, whatever development India has made, it has been achieved by us alone.

We do not need anyone's help," he said. Bardhan along with senior CPI-M leader Biman Bose, strongly opposed the joint naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. "We do not understand why the UPA government is frequently succumbing to US pressure," Bose, the chairman of the Left Front in West Bengal, said.

The naval exercise "clearly violated" India's commitment to the non-aligned movement to which it is a signatory, he said. Bose claimed India will create "enemies in its neighborhood." "We, with help of the Indian public, will certainly force the UPA government to change its attitude towards the USA," Bose said.