Prakash Karat’s bid to launch a non-Congress platform against Manmohan Singh government’s pro-US, pro-Israel tilt failed to have the desired effect.
Meeting to garner support from MPs for the Palestinian cause falters sans RJD support
NEW DELHI: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat’s bid to launch a non-Congress platform against Manmohan Singh government’s pro-US, pro-Israel tilt failed to have the desired effect, with railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav advising his party MPs not to share the dais with Karat and company.
However, Samajwadi Party member Shahid Siddiqui and Nationalist Congress Party leader DP Tripathi attended the meeting organised by All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO) and the Committee for Independent Foreign Policy, to attack the UPA government’s growing military and strategic alliance with Israel at the cost of the Palestinian cause.
RJD MP Rajiv Ranjan was to attend the meet, but did not turn up. The organisers tried to explain his absence by saying he had to suddenly rush to Bihar.
Apart from Karat, Siddiqui and Tripathi, CPI(M) central committee member Nilotpal Basu, CPI sympathiser and intellectual Kamal Mitra Chenoy lambasted the Centre’s foreign policy and called for “military boycott of Israel”.
After delivering brief speeches, the leaders addressed the press. They said on behalf of the AIPSO and CIFP, they would write to all MPs across the political spectrum to mobilise support for the Palestinian people and force the government to dump Israel.
Later, talking to reporters Karat said the campaign against Israel would be taken “to the people of the country in the coming days”. “India is aiding and abetting Israel, which has unleashed a rein of terror on the people of Palestine,” he said.
He said the Indian government was aiding and abetting Israel through military and security collaboration.
“When Israel was attacking the Gaza strip and West Bank, India launched Israeli satellite, which according to us is a military, spy satellite, to be used to pinpoint areas of attack. It would also be used to spy over Iran, Syria and other countries,” Karat said.
India has always seen a broad national consensus on the Palestinian cause. Only in 1990 a major shift took place. Earlier the BJP government and now the UPA is pursuing a strategic, military cooperation with Israel, the CPI(M) leader said.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net 
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