CPTC2

Indian left expresses solidarity with Burma,
right-wing slams centre
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
October 14, 2007- One of the conglomerates of the Left Front, which is shoring up the United Progressive Alliance government led by the Congress, -- the All India Forward Bloc on Saturday urged India to intervene pro-actively to the ongoing turmoil in Burma.
The call to the Centre came even as the Burmese military junta kept up a relentless manhunt for activists in Rangoon to wipe off the last traces of last month's protests.
In a convention organized on Saturday in support of democratic transformation in Burma , the AIFB said India, being the largest democracy in the world, has a responsibility to support democratic changes in Burma.
Debabrata Biswas, Member of Parliament and General Secretary of AIFB said, "India should stand by the democratic movement in Burma and as the largest democracy, India must ensure a democratic system is set up there."
Attended by over 70 Burmese activists and Indian supporters, the convention is the first organized by a left wing party in India. The ruling Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had earlier issued statements condemning and voicing concern over the military junta perpetrating violence on peaceful protesters last month.
In Burma, a prominent student activist, Htay Kywe, who has been in hiding since 13 of his fellow 88 generation student leaders were arrested on August 21, was arrested on Saturday along with three other activists.
Htay Kywe, Ma Mie Mie, Aung Thu, and an unidentified fourth person, all belonging to the "88 generation students group", were nabbed on the street, apparently, while moving to another hideout.
Meanwhile, India's main opposition right-wing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Friday held a closed-door foreign policy review meeting on Burma, where two Burmese activists along with party leaders and the think-tank, pointed to loopholes and set-backs in India's foreign policy on Burma.
Senior party leader, Venkaiah Naidu, convener for the gathering, lambasted the ruling Congress-led coalition government for failing to effectively respond to the ongoing crisis in Burma, where several protesters were brutally massacred by the ruling junta last month.
Naidu said he had personally conveyed a message to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India cannot be a silent spectator. However, India responded with a carefully worded statement calling on the Burmese junta to implement a broadbased reconciliation process with all concerned parties.
Jaya Jaitley, former president of Samata Party, an ally of the BJP, said it is both farcical and irrelevant for India to call on the Burmese junta to investigate into the recent killings of protesters as the junta is the culprit.
Rather, she said, India should ask the Burmese government to allow an independent investigating team to probe the killings and crackdowns on protesters.
Naidu admitted that India has made several mistakes in its foreign policy on Burma in the past two decades and stressed that India cannot remain a silent spectator to the ongoing crisis in neighbouring countries, including Burma.
The meeting was the first of its kind as the BJP, the main opposition to the Congress-led coalition UPA, during its stint in power had followed up the Congress' "Look East Policy" on Burma