Southern States - Karnataka   

Anti-war sentiment palpable in Mysore

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE March 21. "Warmongers U.S., lay off Iraq", screamed a banner held aloft by a crowd of students gathered at the K.R. Circle here on Friday morning. Though the protest demonstration was organised by a handful of representatives of the city unit of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), the public mood against the ongoing U.S. war against Iraq was palpable.

Setting the stage for anti-war sentiments in Mysore was no less a person than the Nobel laureate, Richard Ernst, who called upon the academia to speak up against the "warmongering" by the U.S. during a lecture at Manasagangothri last month. The winner of the Right Livelihood award, which is considered the alternative Nobel Prize, Medha Patkar, who was also here last month, described the growing anti-war mood as a direct fallout of the anti-globalisation movement which was sweeping the world. Soon, Mysore began witnessing a series of anti-war demonstrations. A host of organisations comprising eminent personalities and students have already held protests and taken out rallies to give vent to their anxiety.

S.G. Vombathkere, Major-General (Retd.), and the former CFTRI Director, H.A.B. Parpia, led an anti-war procession from the Ramaswamy Circle to the Deputy Commissioner's office recently. Students of Mysore Public School, a residential school on the outskirts of the city, held a prayer meeting on Thursday, flaying the U.S. for adopting an "arrogant" stance with regard to waging war against Iraq.

A letter was sent by the students and the staff members of the school to the U.S. President, George Bush, and the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, through their respective Ambassadors in New Delhi, counselling peace. While the U.S. establishment failed to acknowledge receipt of the letter, the Iraqi Ambassador to India promptly despatched a reply, thanking the students for their gesture. The anti-war atmosphere in Mysore does not appear confined to the academia. Farmers too have a reason to oppose war. Mallesh, President of Mysore and Chamarajanagar District Farmers' Welfare Committee, feared that the war might lead to an increase in the price of petrol. "The main interest of the U.S. in Iraq is control of oilfields," he said, echoing the fears of Dr. Ernst. "If the U.S. begins controlling the oil market, the price of diesel is bound to increase in India, making transportation of agricultural produce expensive for farmers who are already reeling under the impact of the WTO," Mr. Mallesh said.

Pointing out that Iraq was purchasing wheat from India and supplying oil to it, Mr. Mallesh said the Indian Government should play a proactive role in preventing the wilful destruction of Iraq rather than issuing a perfunctory statement of condemnation. Parliament and State Assemblies should pass a resolution against the U.S. policy of waging a war with Iraq.

"It is a shame that the U.S., which has a formidable array of sophisticated weaponry, should attack a poor country like Iraq which has been disarmed," he said.

Mr. Mallesh also called upon the Government to block the beaming of American and British news channels in India, contending that they were behaving as the spokespersons of their respective governments.

Mr Mallesh said a huge rally of farmers against the U.S. war on Iraq would be held in Chamarajanagar town shortly. Meanwhile, anti-war activists in the city said the ongoing war had elicited spontaneous response from all over the world in the form of protests. Unlike the previous wars, when anti-war sentiments took time to set in, the war against Iraq had elicited immediate reaction, an activist said.

Meanwhile, the SUCI's Mysore unit, which organised a protest demonstration at the K.R. Circle today, regretted that the Bush-Blair combination was waging a war with Iraq in defiance of international opinion.

The convenor of the unit, M. Shashidhar, called upon the world's peace-loving public to launch a movement against America's imperialism.

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