Anti-Bush protests from streets to Parliament

ew Delhi, March 2: The anti-Bush countrywide demonstrations today (Mar 2, 2006) received a big momentum when a large number of MPs held a protest sit-in in the premises of Parliament and flayed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for breaking diplomatic norms by receiving the United States (US) President at the airport.

The members mostly belonging to the four Left parties, Samajwadi Party and JD(S) raised slogans for over an hour against Mr Bush's visit, which the protestors said, "Signifies the US administration's attempt to influence India's economy and foreign policy."

The DMK and TDP leaders also joined the dharna to express their solidarity with the protestors who said B stood for 'barbaric', U for 'uncivilised', S for 'sadist' and H for 'horrendous'.

Interestingly, members belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist CPI(M), Communist Party of India (CPI), RSP and Forward Bloc, SP and JD(S) wore red caps. While the SP and JD(S) members wore plain red caps, the Left MPs' caps had respective party logos.

CPI(M) Parliamentary Group leader in the Rajya Sabha Nilotpal Basu, party floor leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia and senior party leaders Brinda Karat and Mohammad Salim, CPI floor leader in the Lok Sabha Gurudas Dasgupta, deputy leader C K Chandrappan, SP leaders Amar Singh, Ramji Lal Suman, Ramgopal Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Jaya Prada, Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas, RSP leaders Abani Roy and Sudhakar Reddy were among others who participated in the protest.

They sat on protest dharna for an hour in front of gate number 1 of Parliament House, carrying placards reading ''Go back Bush, the unwanted guest,'' and ''Bush is a war criminal and the greatest terrorist'' and ''UPA government, don't surrender to US imperialism''.

Mr Basu said, "Our protest is an expression of Indian people's indignation against Mr Bush and the US Government policies. Therefore, we have to take note of Bush's presence." He said it might be remembered that both Houses of Parliament had adopted a unanimous resolution condemning the Anglo-US invasion of Iraq on completely fictitious grounds and continued occupation and large scale killings of people there.

UNI