Hyderabad: Accusing the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of pursuing a "completely pro-US foreign policy", the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) on September 18 said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's recent address at the United Nations had "deliberately" skipped the issue of America's proposed war on Iraq.

"It was not an inadvertent omission but a deliberate one. The NDA government does not want to be on the wrong side of US. This is despite the fact that India's interests in the Gulf region will be severely affected in the event of American aggression," the CPM politburo member Prakash Karat told reporters.

Though United Nations was the "best forum" to raise the issue of America's feverish preparations to launch aggression against Iraq, the Prime Minister chose not to mention it as he could not afford to displease US, he said.

"Incidentally, Pakistani President (Musharraf) also chose not to raise the issue," Karat said.

He said America's threat to Iraq and its adverse impact on India would be one of the issues to be highlighted during the 10-day nation-wide campaign being taken up by CPM from September 20.

The NDA government's "failure" to tackle severe drought situation and corruption charges against Union ministers and other BJP leaders would be among other issues to be focussed during the campaign.

Referring to elections in Kashmir, he said it was clear that people were willing to vote provided there was adequate security and hoped that the state administrative machinery would maintain impartial attitude.

PTI