NEW DELHI, Nov 15: India’s main leftist parties warned Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday against acquiescing to Washington’s plan to attack Iraq, saying silent spectators could become the next target.

Leaders of the two main communist parties and a key Naxalite group along with several others walked with a few thousand marchers to parliament but were stopped by the police well short.

The ‘Committee Against War On Iraq’ which organized the rally said it proposes to intensify its nationwide protests against the arriving war.

“With this rally, a nationwide campaign against US imperialism’s ‘war on the world’ has been launched. The rally also sent a warning to Vajpayee government to raise its voice against Bush’s war drive,” a statement said.

Thousands gathered on a sunny day afternoon with placards, banners and flags. Among them were workers, students, youth, women, teachers, writers and Delhi’s leftist and liberal intellectuals.

In the lead were senior leaders of CPI (M) - Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Prakash Karat; CPI - A B Bardhan, D Raja; JD-S - former prime minister H D Deve Gowda; RSP - Manoj Bhattacharya; CPI (ML) - Dipankar Bhattacharya; Forward Bloc - Devarajan.

Despite poor health, former prime minister, V P Singh too joined the march briefly.

“Ameriki Goondagardi Nahi Chalegi”, “Bomb Nahi, Roti Chahiye”, “Jang Nahi, Shanti Chahiye”, “Bush-Blair, Murderous Pair” were some of the slogans chanted.

Happy with the expression of strong anti-war protests in many parts of the world by millions of people, Surjeet urged Indians to join this campaign in a big way.

He termed the silence of the government on this issue “shameful” and said it would be raised in parliament.—J.N.