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Journalism of Courage
The CPM today announced that its cadres would protest on the streets with Left partners on November 8 against US policies but its general secretary Prakash Karat said they would not boycott President Barack Obama since he is not George Bush.
Karat told The Indian Express that CPM MPs were free to attend Obamas address to Parliament. He is the elected president of the US. We are not going to boycott him or do anything like that. Our issue is with American policies. We are opposed to US policies which have not changed much under Obama, he said.
There is a difference between Bush and Obama. He is not George Bush. Bush came to India during the height of the Iraq war. The neo-conservative Bush regime had sent troops and occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. The situation then was different, Karat said,explaining the approach of his party and the Left.
In 2006,the Left had forced UPA I to drop plans to let Bush address a joint sitting of Parliament.
A statement issued by four Left parties today said the United States,as part of its global hegemonic designs,is pursuing policies which are inimical to the national sovereignty and the peoples interests of many countries. As far as India is concerned,the US is aggressively pressurising the government to adopt economic policies which are detrimental to the people in the name of a strategic alliance.
The Left said there were expectations of positive changes when Obama came to power after the neo-conservative Bush regime but these,however,have not materialised.
