Members in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday assailed the United States for its war rhetoric against Iraq, as several opposition members wanted India to take a meaningful initiative to ensure peace in West Asia at a time when Washington was acting as a "big bully".
Participating in a special discussion on the situation in Iraq, they alleged that Washington was acting against Baghdad with the hidden agenda of taking control over huge oil resources of Iraq.
Initiating the discussion, Ramji Lal Suman of the Samajwadi Party said the US was using the pretext of alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq to "replicate Afghanistan there." This, he said, was despite the fact that the United Nations inspectors had not found any such weapons in Iraq.
Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Congress party and Suman made a strong plea for India to take initiative in ensuing peace in West Asia. Aiyar said India's voice mattered in the world when it talked of non-alignment. Stating that "we cannot matter as a B team", he said that if the "lust for dominance" of the US was not challenged, it would endanger peace all over the world.
Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the Bharatiya Janata Party said if the US was concerned about Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, then its target should have been Pakistan and not Iraq.
Demanding the government clearly spell out that India was opposed to military aggression in Iraq, Rupchand Pal of the Communist Party of India-Marxist said the attack would cause a paradigm shift in existing laws and international institutions.
He accused the Vajpayee government of destroying the infrastructure of India's foreign policy and said it was "subjugating itself, making itself subordinate to the American plan of action. We should stand up and say we oppose and are not ready to support the US' narrow desire."
Describing Iraq as one of the "good" friends of India, Rashid Alvi of the Bahujan Samaj Party said the UN has become a toy in the hands of the US. Rasa Singh Rawat (BJP) flayed the previous Congress governments asking: "How can they teach us the lesson of peace?"
He said the National Democratic Alliance was committed to oppose war and accused the US of using "bullying tactics".
Margaret Alva (Congress) said India cannot remain a silent spectator to the American game plan to have a regime of its choice in Iraq and said the prime minister should go to the Non Aligned Movement meet with a unanimous resolution against war. Agreeing with Alva, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the Rashtriya Janata Dal said Parliament should adopt a unanimous resolution denouncing the US, which, he said, was trying to undermine the United Nations.
B Mandal of the Samata Party said India should mobilise NAM countries against the US move.
Those who participated in the debate included S S Palanimanikkam of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, P H Pandian of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Bhartruhari Mahatab of the Biju Janata Dal, Ajoy Chakraborty of the Communist Party of India and Krishna Bose of the Trinamool Congress.
