The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday said while the Left party MPs will hear the U.S. President Barack Obama during his address to the joint session of Parliament on November 8, the four Left parties will stage a demonstration and voice the opinion of the Indian people across the country that day.
“As far as the CPI (M) and the Left are concerned, we recognise the difference between [George] and Obama. At the same time, we are aware that the Obama administration represents continuity in terms of the basic U.S. approach for global dominance. That is why the Left has decided to utilise the occasion to highlight the opposition of the people of India to the continuing U.S. imperialist interventions,'' CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said in an article in the latest edition of the party organ, People's Democracy.
The visit comes at a time when the U.S. economy is still floundering with the unemployment rate standing at a high 9.6 per cent and with reduced support for the Obama administration among the people after the mid-term elections. The visit would see more attempts by the U.S. side to get India to open up its markets and allow American companies to invest in sectors like retails trade and agriculture.
Mr. Karat said President Obama's visit has evoked varied reactions in India, with the pro-U.S. lobby well entrenched in the ruling establishment hoping that the occasion can be used to strengthen the strategic alliance with Washington. This lobby, he said, advocates further expansion of defence ties and conceding its demands for opening up investment opportunities in new sectors.
“A vocal section of the right-wing and corporate media even want India to go along with the aim of the United States to pitch India as a counterweight to China. We have seen in the past the claptrap about the “Community of Democracies'' acting in concert which was bought by the Vajpayee government during the Clinton administration,'' the article said.
During Mr. Obama's visit, the Left will express the Indian people's opposition to the pressures mounted by the U.S. government to intensify the neo-liberal economic policies in India and to facilitate the opening up of vital sectors like agriculture, retail trade and higher education to American multinationals.
“The Obama visit should not result in Walmart being allowed into retail trade in India which will destroy the livelihood of tens of thousands of small shopkeepers and traders. The Commerce Minister and sections of the UPA government are rooting for FDI entry into multi-brand retail trade,'' he said.
Justice for gas victims
President Obama, Mr. Karat said, should be told that he has the responsibility to ensure justice to Bhopal gas victims, since a U.S. company was responsible for the worst industrial disaster in the world.
The Left parties will demand that the U.S. stop assistance to the Israeli regime which has sustained illegal occupation of Arab territories for more than four decades and that the Obama administration stop the economic blockade of Cuba and initiate talks with Iran for a settlement on the nuclear issue without resorting to coercive sanctions.
