The Indo-US joint military air exercise (Cope 05) today took off smoothly at the Kalaikunda airforce station in West Midnapore district today amidst state wide protests by activists of ruling CPI(M) and other Left parties shouting anti-US slogans and waving black flags. F-16 Fighting Falcons and E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning System and Control aircraft took part for the first time in the massive two-week joint exercise besides the Indian Air Force's Sukhoi-Mk-30I, MiG-29, MiG-27 and MiG-21 BIS as protestors raised anti-US slogans and waved black flags outside the airbase.
KC-130 refuelling aircraft also took part in the Pacific Airforces sponsored exercise at the airbase which was barricaded off with army personnel in jeeps fitted with machine guns.
An effigy of US President George Bush and a copy of the Indo-US defence framework were burnt by the protestors. An Indian map with chains was up at the platform from where Left Front leaders spoke.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose said in Kolkata during a demonstration at the N S C Bose International Airport that India had always pursued a policy of non-alignment but recent acts and pronouncements of the Centre indicated a gradual shift towards armed blocs was taking place.
"The UPA government is following in the footsteps of the previous BJP-led NDA government which is a dangerous trend," he said.
Echoing the LF chairman, Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said the NDA began the move for a strategic Indo-US alliance in the military area because it wanted to bring the country "under the nuclear umbrella". "We are against India's strategic alliance with the US," he said, "for India's defence needs we should combine with China and Russia and scrap the Indo-US Defense Framework Agreement".
"Politically, we oppose the Indo-US joint exercise. We don't want India to have strategic alliance with the US but in a federal setup we have to comply with what the Centre says."
He said the Centre had sent a letter to the state chief secretary saying West Bengal government should provide necessary support for the joint exercise.
The Chief Minister said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also telephoned him. "The Prime Minister rang me up because he had received information that our government and the Left parties would stop holding of the exercise," Bhattacharjee said.
The Chief Minister said he had assured the Prime Minister that "we are not going to physically stop it but we are opposing the exercise as we are against India going for strategic alliance with the US".
When the Chief Minister was asked that the Marxists were wooing US investments on one hand and opposing the Indo-US exercise on the other, he said "We want US capital and knowledge. I have great regard for American universities, but not weapons."
Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta, the Chief Minister said, was going to the US shortly "because we want American investments in petrochemicals and food processing industries". At a demonstration by the Left Front before the USIS in Kolkata, CPI(M) politburo member Anil Biswas said the UPA government at the Centre had "failed" to protect national security, sovereignty and independence by allowing the air exercise.
He alleged the UPA government, to which the Left parties were providing crucial outside support, had flouted 10 to 12 conditions of the Common Minimum Programme.
He said if this continued, "we will have to think afresh about providing support to the UPA".
Expressing concern over the direction India's foreign policy was heading, he said the US was only interested in selling arms and an arms race to keep control of the region.
"Either India should reject the US or forego the support of the Left parties. Both cannot continue together," he said.
He also accused the opposition parties in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress, Congress and BJP of k eeping silent about the joint exercise.
Leaders of Left Front allies, CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc were present before the USIS.
