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Delhi rally to protest against Clinton's visit

The National Alliance of People's Movements has announced a large protest rally in New Delhi on March 15 to protest against the visit of US President Bill Clinton which it said, will ''thrust'' the globalisation agenda on the country.

In a statement, NAPM's national convenor Vimal Bhai said peoples across the country were opposed to Clinton's visit and the entire media hype building up to it.

Stating that the people of the country were ashamed at the way the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were vying for Clinton's visit, "like two children eager to show their progress cards to the master", the NAPM said it would not allow the real issues to be hijacked by Clinton's visit.

''All this (information technology) hype is to marginalise the real issues and concerns of the common people -- the farmers, toilers, Dalits, backward classes and castes, adivasis, fisherpeople, workers and other depressed classes of Indian society. The elite in this country are out to submerge the reality of this nation, the real concerns of the people and the visit of the american president provides them an apt moment to reinforce their attempts,'' the NAPM statement said.

The people's movements were also opposed to the visit as the United States had been instrumental in imposing unequal multilateral treaties on developing nations. The US has been hypocritical in insisting on labour and environmental standards about imports from Third World countries while encouraging the movement of capital and development pattern which has been highly violative of environmental norms and labour rights, it said.

Before converging in the capital on March 15, the representatives of these groups are to meet for a three-day conclave at Chotta Badada village near Badwani in Madhya Pradesh and take out a procession on March 13 on the occasion of the world anti-big dam day.

UNI

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