'Warn US against meddling in internal affairs'

New Delhi, May 26: The Left parties today asked the Centre to direct the Chhattisgarh government not to accept the offer by the United States to help tackle Naxalism, and wondered why Washington was being allowed to ''interfere'' in India's internal matters.

While the CPI(M) said the UPA government should clarify the situation, the CPI demanded that a warning be issued to US embassay officials saying India was capable of tackling such issues on its own.

Reports had said the US officials yesterday offered all assistance to Chhattisgarh to deal with extremists and that the state government had welcomed the offer.

''The US has no business involving itself in internal security and law and order issues. The attitude of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh is condemnable as no state government has the right to involve foreign countries in internal security matters,'' CPI(M) polit bureau said in a statement.

The Left party demanded that the UPA government convey to the US embassy that such ''involvement'' in politics and internal security matters of the country was ''unacceptable''.

CPI leaders A B Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said such meddling was not new for the US, and recalled US Ambassador David Mulford's letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee criticising his remarks against the American inteference in India's internal matters.

''The US embassy should be warned that this blatant interference in the internal affairs of our country will not be tolerated,'' the CPI leaders said.

They said US officials should immediately apologise for their offer of help to Chhattisgarh.

UNI