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-- Dipankar Bhattacharya
New Delhi, 21 March.
Hundreds of activists of the CPI(ML) led by General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya today held a protest demonstration at Parliament Street in New Delhi condemning the ongoing US-led war on Iraq. The demonstrators denounced the war as a blatant war of aggression and held the Bush-Blair bandwagon as the biggest threat to peace and civilisation. Displaying a huge banner which read "Stop Butcher Bush! Stand by Iraq!" and waving placards reading "Disarm and Oust Butcher Bush", "Prosecute Bush for International Crime Against Humanity", etc. and chanting slogans against US imperialism, the demonstrators also held a brief meeting before burning an effigy of George Bush.
Addressing the anti-war activists CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the war on Iraq was a direct onslaught on the whole of Asia and the third world. He said Bush and Blair knew it very well that the world did not believe a word of their audacious arguments for war and hence they withdrew the resolution from the UN Security Council.
The CPI(ML) leader said that the present war was singularly detrimental to India’s own economic and strategic interests, yet the pro-US Vajpayee government had refused to oppose the war. He called upon the peace-loving people of India to mount pressure on the Vajpayee government by organising a powerful anti-war campaign in keeping with India’s glorious anti-imperialist legacy.
Several leaders of the Party and its mass organisations as well as a number of democratic personalities, social and cultural activists and intellectuals joined this anti-was protest programme. Such anti-war demonstrations were also held yesterday at all prominent centres of the country including Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati, and Chennai. The Party has decided to continue this anti-war campaign throughout the country.
The Party activists will also join the Anti- War March to US Embassy to be held tomorrow on March 22nd in New Delhi under the banner of 'Committee Against War on Iraq'.