Kolkata: "This government is scared of America." This is how veteran CPI-M leader and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu reacted on Sunday to the timid response from New Delhi to the hanging of Saddam Hussein on Saturday.
"They (the government) should have more strongly denounced the hanging. But the fact remains that they are sacred of America," Basu, a CPI-M Politburo member, said. He was talking to journalists after a meeting of his party's state committee.
Expressing dissatisfaction at the government's response to the execution of Saddam, Basu said, "They have kept the country (Iraq) under their occupation and installed a puppet regime there. And they have no right to hold the trial of Saddam and hang him." He didn't name the United States specifically.
The UPA government had earlier opposed the death verdict to Saddam. On Saturday after the former Iraqi president was hanged, New Delhi only sent a guarded response, saying the government was 'disappointed' at the 'unfortunate' event and hoped it would not affect the process of reconciliation and restoration of peace in Iraq.
The ruling CPI-M and the Opposition Congress in Kerala have called a state-wide hartal while West Bengal's ruling Left Front has announced it will observe a protest day on January 2 to protest against Saddam's execution.
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