Tens of thousands protest against Bush’s India visit

Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting ‘Death to Bush!’ rallied on Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by US President George W Bush. Surindra Singh Yadav, a senior police officer in charge of crowd control, said as many as 100,000 people, had gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for political rallies. Special: President Bush in India.

“Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to show our anger. We have only one message — killer Bush go home,” actor-turned politician Raj Babbar, told the crowd.

Bush arrives in India later on Wednesday for a three-day visit focused on strengthening the emerging strategic partnership between India and the United States. Dozens of protests have been planned by Islamic leaders and communist politicians.

While Bush remains more popular in India than he is in many other countries, some here object to US policies, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wednesday’s protesters carried placards that read: “Bully Bush, Go Home,” and “Death to America, Death to Bush.”

Police, some of them armed with rifles, were heavily deployed around the fairground.

On Tuesday, about 1,000 Muslims demonstrated in Mumbai, some waving placards reading “Devil Bush Go Back,” with caricatures of Bush as a cross between Superman and Satan — dressed in the superhero’s red-and-blue costume with devil’s horns and clutching a missile.

Some mosques in Hyderabad, where Bush will visit on Friday, have already unfurled banners protesting his arrival and plan to chant verses from the Quran in hopes that it will drive him away. Muslim groups also have called for a day-long strike to protest Bush’s visit to Hyderabad.

Members of the leftist Students Federation of India and the Communist Party of India burned effigies of Bush at three intersections in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

The communists, who are key allies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, also plan to protest on Thursday at Parliament in New Delhi.

“Up to 50,000 people will take part in the march, and we have the police permission to express our feelings,” said Pushpender Grewal, secretary of the Communist Party of India.

“We will protest against the US policies, especially the inhuman atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq, a likely invasion of Iran and its continuing support to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.”

By Nirmala George in New Delhi