Left praises Putin, pillories Manmohan

KOLKATA: Even as the CPI(M) threatens to topple the UPA government for sticking to the Nuke deal and pillories Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for backing it, the party has hailed Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for reviving a Cold War exercise to take on ‘imperialist forces’.

Reflecting vestiges of a bi-polar world, the CPI(M) has raised a toast to president Putin’s decision to revive round the clock patrolling of skies over Atlantic and Pacific oceans by its nuclear armed deep penetration bombers, a practise discontinued in 1992.

Back home, the CPI(M) is raising the bogey of US imperialism through sloganeering like “USS Kitty Hawk - symbol of US aggression in Vietnam is here”. The party intends spread the message across West Bengal, ahead of the five nation joint naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal starting September 4.

In a bid to pull the plug on Manmohan Singh, the CPI(M) quoting Putin, said Russian national security was under threat, and the Russian president did the right thing by renewing patrolling of the skies to oppose any imperialist intrusion.

In an editorial in Ganashakti, the CPI(M) mouthpiece in Bengal, the party said: “The Russian realisation of US’s militaristic designs is late but nevertheless commendable.” The party however, raised doubts over Putin’s ability to stick to retaliatory measures.