NEW DELHI: When Bill Clinton addressed both Houses of Parliament, the Left stayed away. His successor George Bush was greeted by the Left with strident anti-US slogans. But, when Barack Hussein Obama addresses members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha , many Left MPs are likely to be present in the central hall.
After mulling over its strategy during the US president’s visit next month, the CPM polit bureau is understood to have decided against a total boycott of Mr Obama’s address to Parliament on November 8. While the party is not making it mandatory for its MPs to be present during the address, CPM leaders and deputy leaders of both the Houses will be attending it. Polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury is the leader of the party in the Upper House while central committee member Basudeb Acharia is his counterpart in the Lok Sabha.
“It has been left to members to decide whether they want to attend the US president’s address. It is not compulsory,” a CPM leader said on Wednesday in the Capital.
This strategy is expected to be adopted by the entire Left though CPI will take a formal call on the issue at its national executive meeting on Thursday. CPI sources said the Left would take a decision jointly on whether it would attend Mr Obama’s address. An article in the party mouthpiece New Age said Washington wants India to play second fiddle in world matters that involve US interests, particularly against China.
The Left has also not planned any major protest during the visit, unlike the previous two presidential visits when it exhibited its ideological anti-Americanism. The Left’s dilemma on its approach towards Mr Obama stems from its predicament that while there is no major change in Washington’s policies, Mr Obama is the first African-American president and that he has begun the process of troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The Left parties and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) had held a rally in the Capital during Mr Bush’s visit in 2006 in protest against the US war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then, the Left, with its strength of 61 MPs in the Lok Sabha alone, was an ally of the Manmohan Singh government.
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Topic: Communist Party of India to support US President for the first time (Read 863 times)