CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday said India’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the West Asian countries is dictated by strategic and military alliances with the US and Israel.CPI’s A B Bardhan, NCP’s D P Tripathi and SP’s Shahid Siddiqui shared the dais with Karat while addressing a three-day seminar on “war against imperialism”.“If the UPA doesn’t review its foreign policy, we will take the issue to the people. When the BJP was in power, we had exposed their foreign policy and it cost them dearly. The Congress, too, will have to pay a heavy price, at least in the states where we have a strong presence,” Karat told the gathering. He said India’s stance in the Israel-Palestine dispute has changed in favour of the Israelis, since Israel is the second-largest arms supplier to India. “This shift in the stance is an outcome of the growing intimacy with the US,” the CPM general secretary said.While Bardhan said the stance taken by India has cost the Congress party dearly, Tripathi said that people must come out against the subtle shifts in the country’s foreign policy and speak out for the independence of Palestine and Iraq. “The voice of freedom will prevail,” he said.Shahid Siddiqui from SP, who joined in later, said, “Jews have the right to influence India’s foreign policy, but Indian muslims don’t have any right to tell the UPA government.” “Let’s raise our voice against the atrocities in Iraq and Lebanon,” he urged the gathering.
