Lalu favours India, Pakistan unification

New Delhi: Sighting the example of erstwhile East and West Germany, RJD President and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Saturday said he favoured unification of India and Pakistan.

"If these two countries unify it will become a force to reckon with," as quoted by PTI, the minister told a seminar in Patna.

Lalu said that during his visit to Pakistan, several citizens of that country advocated unification of the two countries.

Talking on Iraq violence, Prasad flayed the US president for pursuing an "imperialist policy" in Iraq. The US was now contemplating attacking Iran for defying its diktats, he said.

Referring US as "unilateral choudhary" (head of different countries) across the world, he said it did not want the developing countries to prosper.

Just to prove to the world particularly the Muslim nations to fall in line with the US, Saddam Hussain, who was a friend of India, was hanged to death on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr, he said.

Having a dig at the NDA, Lalu said when Iraq was attacked, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee failed to condemn the attack, despite RJD and Left parties had asked Vajpayee to do so, as he lacked the courage to antagonise the super power.

"We should have the courage to fight imperialism," Lalu said while inaugurating a national seminar on 'For A Peaceful and Prosperous India' in Patna.

Among the others, also present on the occasion were Union Minister Mani Shanker Aiyar, CPI Secretary D Raja and senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri.

India should pursue an independent foreign policy without succumbing to any pressure from the US imperialism, said CPI Secretary D Raja.

Senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri said there was a need for raising voice against "economic slavery" being thrust upon on the developing nations, including India, by the US.

Recalling the sacrifices made by former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi for disarmament, Union Minister Mani Shanker Aiyar said, “Due to the initiatives of these two leaders, the US and now disintegrated USSR had put a break on arms race”.