পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/৫৬৬

534 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড 이 CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS YAHYAKHAN AMD MRS. GANDHI 1st December, 1971 by Jhon Tusa (OC) John Tusa, a writer on Asian affairs, discusses the background to President Yahya Khan's appeal to the United Nations. If the world needed to be reminded of how far India has moved away from its previous policy of military non-intervention in East Pakistan, it has been helped by the Defense Minister, Mr. Jagjivan Ram. Indian forces, he has just said, can cross into East Pakistan to silence Pakistani artillery. Mr. Ram has also said that war could still be avoided if the people of Bangladesh were given their independence. At the same time, the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi, has outlined her views of the steps needed to restore peace to East Pakistan. In a carefully worded speech to the parliament in New Delhi, Mrs. Gandhi repeated her often stated belief that only a political settlement, including the release of the imprisoned leader of the Awami League of East Pakistan-Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-can end the fighting. On the other side, President Yahya's call for the stationing of U. N. observers on the Pakistan side of the border is a climb down from his earlier proposal-rejected by India- for observers on both sides. Yet, this is the closest that Pakistan seems to dare to get to appealing to the U. N. to counter Indian activities. Basically, the Pakistan regime must know that its case-in defending its pail in the East Pakistan crisis, or in establishing Indian aggression-is too weak for comfort. The U. N. observer proposal is the best that can be mustered in the circumstances. Militarily, Pakistan is outnumbered and outgunned by the Indians; the burden of a divided army only adds to that inferiority. Both help to explain Pakistan's failure to react militarily in areas of their own choosing-such as Kashmir or in the West politically, President Yahya Khan appears to be making the worst of the choices open to him. The Awami League, is banned and its leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in prison. The National Awami Party, representing the border provinces of the west, had also recently been banned. This leaves Mr. Z. A. Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples' Party based almost entirely on the two "heartland" states of Punjab and the Sind-as the only real survivor of the December elections. Yet the President is said to be planning a new civilian government not on Mr. Bhutto but on Mr. Nurul Amin, whose party won only one seat in December. Nothing could illustrate more harshly the insoluble contradictions raised by President Yahya Khan's present policies. India's tactics appear to be to bring these dilemmas to crisis point as soon as possible. Underlying this aim is the entirely reasonable view that the Pakistan refugees must not be permitted to turn into another international running sore like the Palestine refugees have become for the Middle East. But recent events have reduced Mrs. Gandhi's credibility and restricted her freedom of manoeuvre. World opinion has been distracted from events inside East Pakistan and the fate of the refugees to what looks like another border squabble between India and Pakistan. Politically, Mrs. Gandhi has made an international settlement of the refugee problem more difficult and has moved closer to war.