A hush start to war games
Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 4
The Left seems to have got more fodder for its protests against the US participation in the country’s biggest-ever war games, which got under way in the Bay of Bengal, with the news that a top US military official was coinciding his visit with the Malabar exercises.

While the exercises, in which over 25 warships, including three aircraft carriers, would be participating from India, Australia, Japan, Singapore and the US, got under way, news trickled in that vice-admiral William Douglas Crowder will be visiting Chennai and Port Blair during September 6-8.

Crowder heads the US seventh fleet and will arrive in Chennai on September 6, after which he will fly to Port Blair where he will stay until the completion of the exercises.

The government is fighting shy of publicising the event for fear of annoying the Left which is against the games. This is the first time the war games are being held away from the media attention and even reporters wanting to travel on their own to cover it have not been encouraged.

Gnerally, briefings and other events precede such drills. Later visits by the print and electronic media are facilitated to report on the event and to interact with participants.

Officials admit this is due to the opposition of the Left which had even demanded that Malabar-2007 be called off.

The seventh fleet is the largest of the forward-deployed US fleets covering 52 million square miles, with nearly 50 ships, over 200 aircraft and 20,000 sailors and marines assigned to it at any given time.

The exercise is aimed at increasing inter-operability among Indian, Australian, Japanese, Singaporean, and US maritime forces and developing understanding and procedures for maritime operations. The at-sea training will include sea control operations, multi-carrier operations and the exercise of all major air, surface and subsurface maritime skill sets.

The participants will also conduct personnel exchanges and professional discussions.

The IAF’s Jaguar will be part of the action for the first time.

The exercises are being viewed across the world with keen interest as these would enhance India’s strategic standing in foreign policy matters.

However, the Left has planned demonstrations at various places along the east coast.

China, which has not officially commented on the drill, is known to be unhappy over the event as it is being conducted in the Bay of Bengal for the first time. China has been cultivating naval cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar to gain access to the bay.

Chennai/Kolkata, September 4
The Left today sternly asked the government not to go to the IAEA for followup talks on the Indo-US nuclear deal till a proposed committee comes out with its findings, as they hit the streets to oppose a multi-nation naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal also involving American warships.

“This government is a minority government. It exists only with the support of parties like us. So it should not go ahead with the agreement,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat told a public meeting organised by the Left in Chennai ahead of a protest march to Visakhapatnam tomorrow.

“Do not proceed with the agreement. When the agreement comes for debate in Parliament you will find that a majority of members are against it,” he warned.

“India should also not go to the IAEA to finalise the deal but wait for the committee’s decision,” Karat said.

The UPA should not proceed with the deal until the proposed committee, which would study the Left’s concerns on the issue, examined the matter and took a decision, he said.

Launching an attack against the UPA for its “tilt” towards the US in its foreign policy, he said this went against the common minimum programme (CMP).

The CMP did not contain a single word about a strategic alliance with the US and the Left “would not have supported the UPA if there was such a word”, Karat said.

In Kolkata, CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu flagged off another rally to Visakhapatnam and accused the UPA of putting the country into the US fold.

CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan warned the government that it would have to face the consequences if it ignored concerns expressed by the communists about the nuclear deal. — PTI