| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| যুক্তরাষ্ট্রের কলাম্বিয়া বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে প্রদত্ত প্রধানমন্ত্রী ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর বক্তৃতা | ভারত সরকারের পররাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয় | ৬ নভেম্বর, ১৯৭১ |
PRIME MINISTER INDIRA GANDHI’S ADDRESS AT THE COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 6, 1971
Following are excerpts from the speech:
Had I come here just a few months ago and you had asked me what are the difficulties, I would have said: “There are no difficulties now. We are united. We are sure of our direction. And we are going ahead solving our problems one after another”. But just a week after our new Parliament met and we were still, in the way of all democratic societies, congratulating one another on our victory, a terrific new burden fell on us. All of you are aware, what it is. So I do not want to dwell on it. But I would like to point to some questions which arise and which we think are very basic questions. We are told today that because our forces and those of West Pakistan are facing each other on the border, there is a threat of war. And this is true. But the real problem is not because these forces are face to face. The real problem is because of what has happened in East Bengal. If today there is peace in East Bengal it would not matter if our forces are face to face the West or in the East. There would be no war. But there is this a very serious problem there. And how did it arise? It did not arise because there was insurrection or because there was desire of one part of Pakistan of separate, to scccdc, to become independent. No such voice was raised. There was an election held, a free election under the present military leadership of Pakistan. The programme for the election was put frankly and openly before the people. If the Government of West Pakistan objected to that programme, that was the moment to say, “We will not allow the elections, we cannot allow your six-points, we do not approve of them. Nothing was said. The elections were held and the people of both parts of Pakistan overwhelmingly voted for one party the-Awami League.
I am congratulated on my great majority. But it was nothing compared to the majority which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gained in the election in Pakistan. It was a tremendous victory for him. And he is not an extremist. He was a moderate person. In fact, if I may use the term, he used to be called by some others an American stooge at one time. But once the elections were won, apparently this came as surprise to the Government of West Pakistan and they wanted to find out ways of getting around these results.
Negotiations were begun. We were not in touch with either Sheik Mujib or his party of East Bengal. We did not know what was happening. We read in the papers that there were negotiations. Later, much later, in fact only about a week before I stared on this trip. I happened to meet somebody who said he was present at the negotiations. And, on the 24th of March, they thought that they were coming to a settlement, may be not a satisfactory settlement but still something that could be worked out. But this period was in fact used to bring troops from West Pakistan, and on the 25th of March a reign of
