Political parties tell US to lay off

NEW DELHI: Even though the Nandigram violence has sharply divided the country’s political milieu, when the US listed it as a human rights violation, political parties across the spectrum banded together in admonishing the Bush administration for interfering in a “purely an internal matter of the country”.

The conclusion drawn by the US State Department in its latest annual report regarding Nandigram massacre echoed in parliament on Friday with an angry Left saying it amounted to “grave interference of internal affairs of India”. The Lok Sabha dismissed with “contempt” the report after the matter was raised by CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta.

Information and broadcasting minister PR Dasmunsi accepted there was brutal violence in Nandigram but said the US should not speak of any human rights violation  after what has happened in Iraq. Sharing Dasgupta’s sentiments, speaker Somnath Chatterjee, observed the report should be “ignored with contempt it deserves”.

BJP too said US should keep off India’s internal matters, though it lamented that when Narendra Modi, an elected representative was denied visa by US, no one raised a hackle, some even welcoming the move