পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বাদশ খণ্ড).pdf/১৪৬

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বাংরাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ দ্বাদশ খণ্ড
১২০

Nazism were gaining strength in Europe and the India League was rightly concerned with all these movements and all these troubles because we believed that if man's spirits is crushed anywhere that is a defeat for all of mankind.

 Today, the problem of Bangladesh is the same. It should be of concertino every human being who believes in freedom, who believes in basic human rights, who believes in democracy. Of course, there can be no democracy unless there are basic human rights. I would not like any of you to think that either I myself, or the Government of India, or even the people of India, are in any way against Pakistan or the people of Pakistan, Far from it. We have always wishes them well because we believe it is in our interests that in our neighboring country also there should be peace, stability and progress. We know that just as our major problem is the problem of poverty and disparities, this is so the problem of Pakistan. We are deeply concerned about the welfare of the people there. But we know also that peace and stability, prosperity and progress, can only come when you pay attention to the wants of all your people. In India also, we have areas which are backward, areas which have been neglected, but we are trying our very best to see that the neglect of ages is wiped out now. We know that it cannot be done by magic and neither do the people expect us to do this, but we are taking steps in every area to see that the legitimate grievances of the people should be removed and that the people themselves should be involved in planning and in working out their development programmes. This is what democracy has meant for us-not merely that people have a vote but that they should participate in all the programmes to make democracy work-and bring a better life to the people.

 Just before we had our elections, there were elections all over Pakistan. We had no contract with any political party there, but we had heard from many people that there was a like hood of the Awami League winning the elections. We had no idea that they would win with such a tremendous majority. I think it was perhaps the biggest majority that any free election has given. But, while in our country the result of the election was an automatic one, that a party won and the leader of the party became Prime Minister, across the border the event took a very different, a very tragic and grim turn. I am told that the leaders of Bangladesh were on March 24 given the impression that something was coming out of the talks being held. There was a possibility of understanding. Later on, of course, it seemed that this type of negotiation was used to bring more troops across the seas, and when they were ready with the troops of March 25, the great massacre began. As is perhaps usual in all such conflicts, the brunt of it was borne by the intellectuals. One of the very first attacks was on the University and a large number, I believe over 300 people, were killed on that very first day in the University arca-students, professors, etc.

 To India came an abalanche or a flood of people such as. I think, the world has not known, India is used to refugees. It is not a new phenomenon for us. We have had people from many different countries over the centuries and it has been our tradition to open our doors to help them to find a new life. But you just cannot keep on doing this all the time. To have millions of people in a few weeks is more than even such a big country like India can manage. We do not have the place, we do not have the money, we do not have