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Indo-US air exercises on despite Communist protests
Joint air exercises between India and the United States will go ahead in West Bengal as scheduled despite the Communist parties planning a massive protest, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Friday after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.The meeting was also attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The ruling Left Front of West Bengal has threatened to mobilise three million activists in statewide protests against the exercises in eastern India and has also threatened to lay siege at the Kalaikunda air base Monday. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Mukherjee said there would be no change in the military exercise. Both West Bengal Chief Minister Buddadheb Bhattacharya and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leadership had been informed of the proposed exercise. "Every political party has the right to demonstrate, but at the same time I have requested the state government to provide requisite security," Mukherjee said. The hurriedly convened meeting came within hours of an unscheduled Cabinet Committee on Security meeting late Thursday to discuss the situation arising out of Left parties' opposition to the exercise. The air forces of the two countries are scheduled to start joint exercises at the Kalaikunda air base in West Bengal from Nov 7, where F-16s would be arriving from the USAF35th Wing based in Misawa, Japan. In a statement issued Thursday by the CPI-M, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Forward Bloc, the Left Front said the deepening military collaboration did not augur well for India's strategic interests and independent foreign policy. Posted by: john 2005-11-04 |
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