Karat trashes lobbyists, experts on N-Pact

New Delhi, May 16: CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today alleged that some ''aligned'' lobbyists and strategic analysts were promoting the cause of the United States despite the resistance put up by the people of India and South Asia against ''the imperialist designs'' of the Bush administration. ''It is time the domestic lobbyists for the United States read the writing on the wall,'' Mr Karat said in an article in the Party's weekly-- People's Democracy.

Mr Karat said the people's ''successful struggle'' for restoration of democracy in Nepal and Pakistan should open the eyes of these lobbyists and the experts as to how people are now standing up against the US imperialist designs. In Bangladesh, where the US is supporting the military sponsored regime, the movement for democracy would soon pick up momentum and popular support, he said.

The Nepal election result has another additional significance. It represents a vital break in the now familiar pattern of intervention and influence by the US imperialism in the affairs of South Asia, the Marxist leader said, adding that the Bush administration had backed King Gyanendra when he usurped all powers and provided military aid to the Royal Nepalese Army.

Later, it began wooing the Madheshi groups hoping that the timetable for the run-up to the election could be upset.

However, at every step from the formation of the interim government with the participation of the Maoists to the holding of the Constituent Assembly elections on April 10, the US plans were thwarted. ''The example of tiny Nepal defending its national sovereignty and standing up to the US dictates should be an object of lesson for the rest of South Asia.'' These reverses for the US diplomacy in Nepal come at a time when in India the opposition to the strategic alliance with the United States has made progress with the success registered so far in blocking the Indo-US nuclear deal. Consequently, the attacks on the CPI(M) are being stepped up as the prospects of the deal being operationalised as per the American deadline is fading away.

A desperate attempt is being made to urge the government to go ahead with the deal ignoring the objections of the Left parties and the entire opposition.

One of the worn-out charges resurrected to discredit the CPI(M)'s stand and going ahead with the deal is the accusation that it is acting on the behest of China. Two gentlemen, one afunctionary of FICCI and another a prominent strategic expert have suggested such a course of action, Mr Karat said. In an article in the Times of India (April 10, 2008) secretary general of FICCI Amit Mitra went to the extent of suggesting that the CPI(M) was conniving with China to scuttle the deal.

He made a ludicrous charge that ''the polit bureau members of CPI(M), including some members of Parliament, were whisked away from the airport in Beijing to an unknown destination with no information of their arrival, departure or schedule to the Indian embassy.'' This had come from a person whose organisation maintains a regular office in Beijing. Moreover, when the article appeared he himself was on a visit to China. The FICCI general secretary knows very well that all the national political parties, including the Congress and BJP maintain relations with the Communist Party of China, he said.

''All party delegations who visit Beijing are given the same treatment as the CPI(M) delegates. Yet, the necessity to malign the CPI(M) overrides the facts and even a semblance of being truthful. FICCI should consider what its secretary general is doing utilising the columns of a leading newspaper to slander the third biggest party in the Lok Sabha.'' As for strategic experts, the dominant variety are those who are ''aligned'' experts. K Subrahmanyam, is a prominent example. He is an ardent champion of forging a strategic alliance with the United States and one of those who sincerely believes in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's promise that the United States will help India become a great power. He at one stage pleaded with the UPA government to ignore Parliament's objections and go ahead with the deal. He has written once again in the Indian Express (May 2008) railing at the communists, the CPI(M) leader stated.

Commenting on the Communists' stand he writes, ''As faithful members of the Communist ''ummah'' they want China to dominate Asia and the world ultimately. That they would like India to play a subordinate role''. Mark the choice of the word ''ummah''. It is designed to rouse latent fears of an Islamic jehad in order to buttress the Communist conspiracy. It is not ignorance that leads Subrahmanyam to talk of a non-existent Communist International. Such a body ceased to exist in 1945. It is a crude and deliberate attempt to mar the image of those who believe that a strategic alliance with the United States would harm India's strategic national interests.

The obverse of this pseudo-posturing on national interests is the fact that Subrahmanyam and his ilk were in full throated support of the US invasion of Iraq. They will keep silent about Israel's nuclear stockpile while joining the American chorus against the development of Iran's nuclear technology.

It is also a telling comment on the UPA government that it appointed such a person to head the task force on ''Global Strategic Developments'' under the National Security Council, Mr Karat added.

UNI