The Hindu : 'Covert support' to U.S. on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 28, 2003

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'Covert support' to U.S. on Iraq

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI March 27. Several prominent citizens, at a public meeting today, denounced the United States' aggression against Iraq and pointed out that New Delhi's so-called "middle-path" amounted to covert support to the U.S. and Britain.

N. Ram, Editor, Frontline, said the BJP-led Government had departed from the traditional principles of non-alignment and the Government's earlier contention that the U.S. was India's natural ally, actually made the country a "junior partner of America".

The meeting was organised by People Against War, a coalition of 20 organisations.

Mr. Ram said that India should have gone at least as far as France and Germany to oppose the war on Iraq, which was of "genocidal character". The array of weaponry deployed against Baghdad, included depleted uranium munitions, fuel air explosives and Daisy Cutters — just short of nuclear weapons.

Lyricist Javed Akhtar said the U.S.' stated objective was to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and to establish democracy, but it was well-known that the largest storage of the WMD in the world was in America and it was the U.S, which patronised 90 per cent of the dictatorships in the world, including Saddam Hussein.

Among other speakers were Kapil Sibal, lawyer and Rajya Sabha member, Mahesh Bhatt, filmmaker, and Sebastian, democratic rights activist.

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