By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend the funeral of former Cuban President Fidel Castro, as he did not want to annoy the USA. Inaugurating the two-day national conference of All India Peace and Solidarity Organization (AIPSO), he added that Castro was a great friend of India.

“India always played an important role in the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), of which Castro was one of the founders. After the Modi Government assumed power, it gave the NAM summits a miss,” he added.

He also echoed CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury’s views that India had become the USA’s strategic junior partner and was a part of the latter’s efforts at containing China and Russia. He termed America’s war on terror a ‘gimmick’, adding that it was behind destabilizing Syria and was forcing war on the world, which longed for peace. CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran presided over the function, in which Yechury, CPI national secretary D Raja and others also spoke.

CPM politburo member M A Baby’s book ‘Jeevithavum Anubhavavum’, comprising his conversations with Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan Philipose Mar Chrysostom was released at the function, in which Ambassador of Cuba to India Oscar Israel Martinez Cordoves, Palestine Ambassador Adnan M A Abualhayjaa, executive secretary of World Peace Council Iraklis Tsavdaridis and office bearers of Vietnam-India Friendship Association, Czech Peace Movement and South African Peace Initiative and others were also present.