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Academics, authors join protests

Special Correspondent

“Permission granted to Nimitz marks a reversal of India’s past policy”

NEW DELHI: Renowned academics, authors and former bureaucrats on Friday joined the protests against the Government’s decision to grant permission to U.S. aircraft-carrier Nimitz to rest at the Chennai port. They said this marked “a departure from the United Progressive Alliance’s promise to work for a balanced, multi-polar world free of nuclear weapons,” and pointed to an erosion of foreign policy independence.

The Government’s contention that India’s “well-established, often-reiterated policy of disallowing foreign nuclear weapons into its territorial waters” was not being violated because the nuclear-powered ship “is not known to be carrying nuclear weapons” flew in the face of America’s policy “to neither deny nor confirm” the presence of nuclear weapons on its warships under any circumstances.

“The fact that New Delhi has gratuitously granted this certificate to the U.S., when Washington itself does not do so, speaks poorly of our foreign and security policies,” historian Romila Thapar, writer Arundhati Roy and economist Prabhat Patnaik said in a statement.

Other signatories to the statement were dramatist Habib Tanvir, novelist Mahashweta Devi, historians Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar, economist Deepak Nayyar, and the former bureaucrats, Sudeep Banerjee and S. P. Shukla. The signatories said the decision also marked a reversal of India’s past policy opposing the transit of nuclear weapons in its neighbourhood and the U.S. base at Diego Garcia and its demand for a zone of peace in the Indian Ocean.

They did not find any merit in the argument that the visit of Nimitz should be condoned because 10 other nuclear-powered vessels had visited Indian ports in recent years. “Such precedents cannot justify a policy violation.”

Resist pressure: CPI

Chennai Special Correspondent reports:

The CPI will compel the Union Government to pursue an independent foreign policy and not succumb to the pressure of the United States, party national secretary D. Raja told reporters on Friday.

Referring to the arrival of the U.S. nuclear-powered carrier Nimitz in Chennai during July 1-5, Mr. Raja expressed dismay over what he called reversal of the country’s age-old policy of not allowing warships if they carried offensive weapons.

The Left parties would not accept abandonment of the traditional policy. Their proposed agitation on July 2 would not just remain a token protest. “We will pursue [the matter] with the Union Government,” the CPI leader said. The Government’s move raised several apprehensions. He termed “not acceptable and not convincing” Defence Minister A.K. Antony’s observation that the arrival of the ship was part of the ongoing defence cooperation with several countries.

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