CPM vows to oppose Indo-US strategic alliance

Kolkata: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday vowed to oppose a strategic alliance between India and the United States, stating such a move is aimed at countering China.

''We shall not rest in our fight till the strategic ties with the US is snapped out,'' Karat said at a CPM-sponsored programme in Kolkata to celebrate the October Revolution.

He said the US was trying to make India its strategic ally in countering China, which is "the most powerful socialist country capable of challenging the might of the US".

''US has also changed its tactics of making Pakistan its strategic ally as it has now realised that if it can get India as a strategic ally, the balance will be tilted in favour of imperialism and neo-colonialism'', he said.

Karat said that the people of India would fight against imperialism ''and will not accept the design to convert us as a subordinate ally of the US''.

The strategic document of the US administration recognised China as a major threat to the US hegemony, Karat said.

India, with its potential for development, ''is preferred as an ideal ally of the US. If it can get India as its ally, it can be a big game for the imperialists'', the CPM leader said.

''India is a prize for the US and not Pakistan because of its market. Developed India can be useful for counter-balancing China. This is a game the US is trying to play which has to be foiled'', he said.

The CPM general secretary said Latin American and socialist countries were looking to India for the fight against imperialism as India had a past record of fighting colonialism during the Independence movement.

''When the Bush administration is threatening Iran with the Third World war for its challenge against the US might, the Indian government remained silent and that is surprising,'' he said.

The ruling class in India, said Karat, believed that there would be development if India was on the right side of the US.

''West Bengal is the advanced post for the fight against imperialism and in the coming days, it will continue to put up its resistance", he said.

Is China more important to you than India: BJP asks Karat - "The comments of Prakash Karat finally exposes the sheer duplicity of the CPI(M) and establishes once and for all that for it the interests of China are primary and that of India secondary," party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said. He also asked Karat to explain whether the "US capital which is coming to Kolkata loses its imperial colour after investment in the Left-ruled state." The double-standard is more than evident, he added. Prasad was reacting to Karat's statement in Kolkata yesterday that the US was trying to make India its strategic ally to counter China, "the most powerful socialist country capable of challenging the might of the USA".

China goes ga-ga over Sonia’s visit - November 02, 2007 - China’s Xinhua news agency described Gandhi’s visit as the most important in recent years by any Indian leader. The fact that she was the first foreign dignitary to arrive in Beijing soon after the Communist Party Congress , the most important event in the political calendar of China, concluded its meeting is regarded in the Chinese system as a great honour for a foreign visitor. The Congress meets every five years. “You are the first foreign political leader to visit China after the conclusion of 17th National Congress (on October 22), which is an indication of importance both of us have attached to our relations,” President Hu Zintao told Sonia during their meeting. He described Gandhi's visit as “historic'” and a continuation of China’s relations with the Congress party and the Gandhi family. It was Sonia’s husband, late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who broke the deep freeze in relations with China after the 1962 border war, by going to Beijing in 1988. The process of normalising ties with Beijing began at that time. Sonia had accompanied her husband for that trip. Both Hu and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were effusive in their praise for Rajiv Gandhi.

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