Thursday, March 2 2006 12:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Tens of thousands of people shouting anti-Bush and anti-America slogans today(Mar 2,2006) converged in the capital to protest US President George W Bush's visit to the country.

Waving red flags, holding placards and banners reading 'Killer Bush Go Back' and 'Bush War Criminal', thousands of protestors assembled at the historic Ram Lila grounds here to denounce the US President's visit.

Singing songs and beating drums, students, Left party workers and sympathisers, writers and farmers from across the country are taking part in the rally, called by the 'Committee Against Bush Visit', a joint platform formed to protest the Presidential visit.

Lashing out at Bush, Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy said, "He was a war criminal responsible for bloodshed anddeath in Iraq and its continued devastation."

"He has destroyed the economies of several countries and he is here to wreck our economy," she told sources.

She said Bush had created an affluent class, pushing crores of people into abyss of poverty.

Announcing the protest proceedings, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat had earlier said that the 'welcome to Bush will be very warm, so warm that he will feel the heat.'