India rubbishes Condoleezza's remarks on NAM

New Delhi, June 29 (UNI) India today strongly rejected US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's advice to dump the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), while the Left parties said she was sending out the message that the civilian nuclear deal was linked to ditching NAM and joining a new US-led global alliance of democracies.

Responding to queries on Ms Rice's comments, a foreign office spokesman said NAM's ''relevance continues in promoting South-South cooperation and the democratisation of the international system'' and there was no question of India going back on its ''firm and abiding commitment'' to the movement.

NAM played a significant role in ending apartheid and colonialism. ''India remains committed to its ideals,'' the spokesman asserted.

A CPI(M) Polit Bureau statement said, ''The message is being conveyed... that the nuclear cooperation agreement can be finalised provided India understands the parameters of the 'strategic alliance' with the United States.'' ''The least the UPA Government can do is to come out with a clear and categorical statement that India does not need to be lectured on its foreign policy, and by reiterating its basic commitment to NAM.

''The Government should also realise that the country is closely watching the course of the nuclear cooperation talks and will not countenance any compromise under US pressure,'' it said.

Strongly objecting to the ''gratuitous'' advice of Ms Rice, the CPI Central Secretariat said: ''The US is holding out the sop of nuclear deal and special favours in exchange for denigrating NAM and forging a strategic alliance with te US.'' The party urged the Government to rebuff the American move, and assert its independent foreign policy and its commitment to NAM.

Speaking at a meeting of the US-India Business Council in Washington on Wednesday, Ms Rice had wondered ''at a time when people of every culture, every race, and every religion are embracing political and economic liberty, what is the meaning of non-alignment?'' ''One is aligned not with the interests and power of one bloc or another, but with the values of a common humanity,'' she said and asked, ''How can we not afford to join each other, on a global scale, to support opportunity and prosperity and justice and dignity and health and education and freedom and democracy?'' ''There will be differences; differences of policy, differences of tactics, from time to time, differences of strategy,'' she said.

''But with India, a good and strong emerging multiethnic democracy, there will not be differences about what we are trying to achieve: a world that is freer, a world that is more prosperous, and a world that is more just.'' UNI Team PK BD1934