Friday, February 21, 2020

Trump not welcome in India: Anti-imperialist, left forces ready to protest during his visit

Indian PM Modi and U.S. President Trump (Archive Photo).
Democratic, peace-loving and anti-imperialist forces in India are ready to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit in the country on February 24-25. 

During a press conference last week, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, said that his party will participate in demonstrations during Trump’s visit to the country. 

“May be in Delhi or in Gujarat, the party activists will certainly protest”, Yechury pointed out. 

Regarding Trump’s visit, the CPI(M) leader said that the U.S. “is putting pressure and (Narendra) Modi is succumbing to completely open us our economy which is the gain they want to achieve in order to give support to Modi on issues like CAA, Article 370 and others". Furthermore, he added that India spends “billions of dollars buying U.S military equipment, to bail out U.S economy while destroying our own”. 

From his side, D. Raja, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) issued a statement urging all the progressive forces in India to protest strongly against the visit of Trump. The statement reads:

“Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja has urged his party units all over the country, the left parties as well as all other democratic and peace-loving parties and forces to protest vehemently on February 24, 2020, against US President Donald Trump’s two-day visit to India. He will be arriving on February 24 at Ahmedabad, Gujarat and the next day he will be in Delhi.

It is a matter of serious concern that the government of India instead of pursuing an independent foreign policy is succumbing to the pressures of US imperialist power while the U.S. is continuing to imposing its hegemonic policies on the world along with its brazen hostilities towards Cuba, Palestine, Iran and others.

In this context he said that All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO) has given a call for protest on the same day Delhi and appealed to all the Left and secular parties to join the protest and give a befitting rebuff. Also the National Secretariat of CPI has called upon all party units to organize protests all over the country.”