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'India should not join U.S.-led force in Iraq'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 24. Demanding that India should not be part of the U.S.-led force in Iraq, non-Congress Opposition MPs today asserted that any position contrary to the resolution of Parliament would be an "infringement of its privilege".

Expressing concern over New Delhi engaging with the United States on the subject, the MPs said the move amounted to "total subservience to U.S. military interest" which the people of India would never accept.

"We are preparing to take on the Government in Parliament and the Opposition leaders would decide (the) floor strategy at a meeting ahead of the monsoon session," the CPI (M) Rajya Sabha leader, Nilotpal Basu, told a press conference here today.

Mr. Basu also took exception to the talks with a team of Pentagon officials and objected to "their interpretation" of the U.N. resolution on Iraq. "This (resolution) cannot be called U.N. mandate, it is an infringement on Parliamentary privilege."

While a public debate had been triggered by the U.S. request, he said that strangely the Government was yet to come out with its position. The Opposition felt that in the light of the unanimous resolution by Parliament on Iraq, which clearly declared that reconstruction of Iraq should be done under the auspices of the United Nations, the Vajpayee Government's present exercise was contrary to "national interest and an affront to Parliament".

The signatories to the statement included the former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda (JD-S), Somnath Chatterjee and Nilotpal Basu of the CPI (M), Rama Shankar Kaushik (SP), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD), Ajay Chakraborty (CPI), Sanat Kumar Mandal (RSP), Debabrata Biswas (AIFB), Ram Vilas Paswan (LJS) and H.K. Javare Gowda (JD-S).

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