Left activists protest joint naval exercises with US

Shimla, Sep 10 (UNI) Activists of the CPM and CPI activists today held demonstrations across Himachal Pradesh against the Centre's decision to hold joint naval exercises with the US, saying it was against the country's interest.

The Left parties opposes the growing military collaboration with US as it is against the country's naval interests and UPA's Common Ninimum Programme, CPM's state secretariat member Tikender Singh Panwar and CPI's state secretary Vasudev Vasu said in a release here.

They claimed that the naval exercises being held under the name of ''Malabar Exercises'' were against the country's idependent foreign policy.

The trilateral security cooperation between US, Australia and Japan had been extended to a quadrilateral security cooperation by including India to serve the interests of US imperialism, they said.

Mr Panwar and Mr Vasu said they also submitted a memorandum to Shimla and Kangra deputy commissioners demanding immediate withdrawal from the joint exercises and putting a cap on the operationalisation of the nuclear deal.

At Shimla, the activists held a demonstration outside the Shimla DC office and later converted it into a mass corner meeting that was addressed by senior party leaders of both the parties, they added.

UNI