14. It is quite obvious from the shocking statement made by President Yahya Khan yesterday that Islamabad has neither the willingness nor the ability to devise a satisfactory political solution of the problem it has created in Bangladesh. It is not contemplating any agreement with the elected leaders of Bangladesh and is in fact planning to hold farcical new elections in a large number of constituencies to legitimise its colonial stranglehold over Bangladesh. It should now be clear to us and to the whole world that it is chimerical to expect the present rulers of Pakistan to revise their basic attitudes to Bangladesh. This has, in fact, made the hope, of a political settlement in Pakistan more unrealisable than before.
15. Everyone, I met abroad was full of praise for the Prime Minister’s restraint and statesmanship in dealing with a difficult crisis. I too admire her for that. But she must decide now if the time for action has not arrived. Action, not from any altruistic motives of rescuing East Bengalis from Pakistan terror and restoring to them their lost democracy, but to prevent Yahya Khan from exporting his internal chaos into this country and achieving a demographic re-distribution of his population at our cost, and, above all, to defend our national security and our political, economic and social institutions. I concede that the Prime Minister must choose her time because she alone is in a position to know and weigh all the pros and cons involved. But even to a private citizen like me the basic consideration are clear and it is on that ground that my plea for action is being advanced.
