NEW DELHI: Left parties today raised strong objections to the Centre’s “in principle” nod to a logistics exchange agreement with the US, terming it as a “dangerous and anti-national” move and demanding that the government “immediately retract” from inking the pact.
The parties charged the Narendra Modi government with converting India into a “full-fledged” military ally of Washington and “compromising” the country’s strategic autonomy by deciding to go ahead with with the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) which will enable both militaries to use each other’s assets and bases for repair and replenishment of supplies.
They also claimed that there is “no transparency” in what the Centre does with regard to “such critical policy matters” as Parliament is not taken into confidence and sought to know why the Modi dispensation is “desperate” to “please” the US by taking the step “voluntarily”.
“The Modi government has taken the dangerous step… In doing so, the BJP government has crossed a line which no other government has done since independence – converting India into a full-fledged military ally of the United States,” the CPI(M) said in a statement.
It accused the government of “compromising” national sovereignty and strategic autonomy of the country with the move and urged all political parties and “patriotic” citizens to oppose the Centre’s “surrender” to the US.
“The government must be told that these anti-national steps do not have the support of the people. It should immediately retract from signing the Logistics Agreement,” it said.(Agencies)
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