People's Democracy

Opposition MP’s Say “No Troops To Iraq”

Non Congress Opposition MP’s, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and CPI(M) Loksabha leader Somnath Chatterjee have in a joint statement strongly opposed the manner in which Vajpayee government was acting on the question of sending Indian troops to Iraq.

Among the signatories to the statement were –Nilotpal Basu CPI(M), Ajay Chakravarthy (CPI), Sanat Kumar Mandal (RSP), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Block), Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Jan Shakti), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD), and Rama Shankar Kaushik (Samajwadi Party)

Following is the full text of the statement:

To our great concern we have been following reports in the media that the Indian government is engaging with the US administration over the possibility of sending Indian troops to Iraq. It will amount to total subservience to US military interest which the people of India will never accept.

The situation in Iraq today, is extremely grave. This is the direct consequence of the unilateral military action undertaken by the US led forces on the alleged ground that the Saddam Hussein led sovereign government of Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.  But notwithstanding this unacceptable context, the US administration has refused to hand over Iraq’s reconstruction and humanitarian aid under the auspices of United National and its agencies even after the earlier regime has been dislodged. This is a complete rejection of the rule of International Law.  The continuous presence of occupation forces in Iraq is not only wholly unjustified but amounts to continuing aggression on the people of Iraq.

Both houses of the Indian Parliament had passed unanimous resolutions on April 8 and 9 as follows:

“The House calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities and quick withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq.

This House also calls upon the United Nations to protect the sovereignty of Iraq and ensure that the re-construction of Iraq is done under the auspices of UN.”

Therefore, we the undersigned, representing different political parties in the parliament consider the government’s present exercise as contrary to national interest and affront to the parliament. We demand of the government should forthwith  declare that in country’s national interest and prestige, it will never be part of the US occupation  or police force in Iraq and that the Central government should not enter into any negotiation with the Pentagon Officials, whose very presence in our capital is being resented by the patriotic and freedom loving people of this country.