Don't send troops to join US-led forces against ISIS: CPI-M to Govt

, Sept 30: CPI(M) on Tuesday asked the government not to succumb to American "pressures" to send troops to join the US-led coalition to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (

).

"The Government of India must, under no circumstances, fall prey to these machinations. It must never join any unilateral US initiative of this sort, no matter how strongly such an initiative is portrayed as defending 'humanity' against 'the forces of barbarism'," the party Politburo said in a statement.

It said the Obama administration "has been putting great pressure on India of late to join a US-led coalition against the ISIS. It may take advantage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence in New York at the moment to make India fall in line with its plans."

"Any international response to the ISIS must have the sanction of the United Nations, without which it carries no legitimacy," it said. The CPI(M) warns the government that "it must never deviate from this basic position which India has always upheld and which commands a consensus in the country."

PTI