Movement of Liberation of East Bengal. So, their border was left in a way unprotected. Either they left it or they did not trust these people in the check-posts and they moved their army to the border. So, after some time, we were forced to move our troops also. Now there was no trouble whatsoever on the Western Front, i.e., Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, but one day they moved their troops there also. Now, there we have got U.N. said, “Oh, this is merely a training exercise”. Obviously, it is not something we could believe. Even then, we did not do anything for more than a week, but at the end of that time we saw that their troops had no intention of withdrawing, we were compelled to bring our troops up to the border.
ow, what does withdrawal mean? People say, even though it was their fault, what harm is there in withdrawing the troops? Well, the question is that their cantonments are right near the border, but ours are not; ours are very far away and if we withdraw, there is no way we can really adequately defend our country if they change their mind. And, we have had no cause to trust them, I mean, we have been attacked twice and on each accession for many months they have, “we have nothing to do with It, we have sent no infiltrators”, and then they themselves have admitted this in public forums, such as, either the Security Council or somewhere else. This is the history and the background. As any head of Government-although India is deeply committed to peace, to total disarmament. India believes that war does not solve problems-but we cannot leave our borders undefended in the present circumstances, especially as all the news coming from Pakistan state that since they are bound to lose East Bengal, why should they not grab a piece of the West. This is the situation which we face. Seeing India from a long distance, it may seem to you: “well, it does not make any difference”. But the people who live on the borders, and ours and inhabited right up to the very edge-in fact, in East Pakistan we have houses where, the houses are in India and the kitchens arc East Bengal or vice-a-versa. We have no natural border; there is no river or road or anything like that. To the people who live in the border, it means a great deal whether they are properly defended or not, whether they can trust the Government to defend them. So, this is what the position is.
There was another question which was asked me a little while ago and which was what about Kashmir? Now, what about Kashmir? Pakistan has spread the propaganda that Kashmir is pro-Pakistan, and I am afraid some other people have helped them in this propaganda. In 1965, they sent a lot of infiltrators, trained people. They thought that these people would we welcomed by the locals. But they were not welcomed. The local population was the first to inform us, because, as it happened, at that time, we did not have very many forces there, we did not even have sufficient police in the city of Srinagar, which is the capital city. It was a very great weakness. This was so because, in the meantime, in 1962. we had been attacked on the other border and we had concentrated all our forces there. But when this attack took place in 1965, it was the unity of the local people, who not only kept us informed, but who formed the front lines almost- till the army came to defend their country. This is how we not only not allowed the Pakistani Army into Kashmir, but took a large portion of territory which has most of the vantage points which were under Pakistan's occupation previously. Now, Kashmir has
