Indian Govt gets left's nod to resume peace talks

New Delhi—Indian Government has received Left parties' support on the issue of resumption of the stalled composite dialogue with Pakistan for settlement of complex issues including Kashmir dispute.
The Left parties' demands came ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to the Non-Aligned Summit in Havana where he is expected to meet President Pervez Musharraf.
The CPI and CPI(M) have also urged the Prime Minister not to heed to those opposing the resumption of Indo-Pak talks and go ahead with the negotiations on various issues including Kashmir, Sir Creek, Siachen and other confidence building measures, said media reports.
"A beginning can be made by holding the Foreign Secretary-level talks" which were put off by India after the Mumbai blasts in July last, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, who met the Prime Minister along with his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan, was quoted as saying.
The Left leaders appreciated Singh's plans to meet Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the fringes of the NAM summit in Havana next week and urged him to end the impasse with Pakistan in dialogue process.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has said the forthcoming NAM summit should "reassert the solidarity of the Third World" in facing the challenges posed by the "brazen military intervention" in Iraq and Lebanon.
In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', he said the NAM should oppose the "unrestrained interference (by US) in the internal affairs of those independent countries that refuse to bow down to imperialist dictates or those who dare to resist imperialist pressures and (US) efforts to economically recolonise the third world countries".
Quoting the draft Declaration of the summit that NAM nations should "remain united, firm and shoulder greater level of activism" in order to face these challenges, Yechury said if these objectives were achieved, the NAM would not only be revitalised "but it is hoped that under the leadership of Cuba, it will once again play the powerful role that it once yielded in shaping the international situation on more democratic and progressive lines". —Agencies