Left criticises 'vision', Cong. reticent

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 22. The official part of the five-day visit of the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, has ended with his summit meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Tuesday and address to the Members of Parliament this morning. And the political parties, barring the BJP, are not exactly ecstatic.

While on first reading, the Congress(I) saw no major shift in the stated positions of India and the U.S. on major issues, the Left parties have said that their worst fears about the BJP Government buying the American stand, hook line and sinker, have come true in the course of the last two days.

Both the Congress(I) and the BJP declined to give a detailed reaction to the Clinton agenda on the plea that they would give considered reaction to the Presidential visit after it was completed on March 24.

The chairman of the AICC(I) media department, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, said that the nuances of Mr. Clinton's speech in Parliament and the Vision 2000 joint communique would have to be anaylsed in detail.The Left parties, denounced the vision statement as proof of India's surrender of its independence in foreign policy and security issues.

The polit bureau of CPI(M), in a statement, said recognition of the U.S. role in regional security of South Asia was a major shift from the policy of Non-Alignment and the CPI quoted from the speech of the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, on the greater relevance of the non-aligned concept of a pluralistic world order in the post cold war era.

The Left has complained that the vision statement does not address any of the issues arising out of the U.S. policies which affect India adversely.

Instead, concerns of the U.S. have been accommodated. The CPI(M) has interpreted the vision statement on non-proliferation as a signal of India's willingness to sign the CTBT.

Endorsement of the WTO regime, acknowledgement of India that it will join the American ideological enterprise known as the community of democracies, and a role for America by promising regular consultations on affairs of South Asia have been cited by the Left parties as proof of the pro-U.S. tilt of the BJP regime.

The Congress(I) leader, Mr. Rajesh Pilot, and the Samajwadi Party General Secretary, Mr. Amar Singh, did not hide their displeasure over what they termed as inadequate references, in Mr. Clinton address, to the role of Pakistan in fomenting trouble across the border. The senior Congress(I) leader, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, said that the joint declaration did not indicate that the U.S. appreciated India's concerns vis-a-vis security.

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