Aligarh, June 13: Senior CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechuri today claimed that all opposition parties including the Congress were "strongly opposed" to the proposal of sending Indian troops to Iraq for functioning as an "occupation Army" under American leadership. Talking to newspersons here, Yechuri expressed "full confidence" that Congress president Sonia Gandhi would in unequivocal terms make the opposition's stand on this issue clear during her discussion with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Yechuri said that the presence of Indian troops in Iraq, serving under the American Army would be an "insult to the Parliament and the Indian people". Yechuri said Parliament had, during the course of the American invasion of Iraq called for immediate withdrawal of the allied forces from Iraq. "Any proposal to send Indian troops to Iraq would violate this decision."
Yechuri also expressed his party's "strong reservation" on the proposal to invite the prime minister of Israel to India. Yechuri said that the Vajpayee government wants to reduce India to the status of a "lackey of the US and self respecting Indians would not be prepared to barter away our freedom for American-Israeli interests." Bureau Report