বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বাদশ খণ্ড)/৭১
| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| “আমরা আমাদের জাতীয় স্বার্থে যা ভালো তাই করবো”-দিল্লীতে প্রধানমন্ত্রী ইন্দিরা গান্ধীর ঘোষণা | দি স্টেটসম্যান | ২ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১ |
WE WILL DO WHAT IS BEST IN OUR NATINAL INTEREST:
MRS. GANDHI
NEW DELHI, Dec. 2.-The Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, declared here today that it did not worry India at all as to who called her aggressor when she had not committed any aggression, reports PTI. Making an obvious reference to the latest newspaper comments from London that Britain might describe India again as an aggressor, Mrs. Gandhi said: “Times have changed during the last five years. If any country thinks that by calling us aggressor it can pressurize us to forget our national interests then that country is living in its own fool’s paradise and it is welcome to that”. Mrs. Gandhi was addressing the Congress workers of Delhi who had assembled at her residence this morning to express their solidarity in this time of national emergency.
Mrs. Gandhi said: “The times have passed when any nation sitting three or four thousand miles away could give orders to Indians on the basis of their color superiority to do as they wished. India has changed and she was no more a country of natives.
“Today we will do what is best in our national interests and not what these so-called big nations would like us to do. We value their friendship, help and aid but we cannot forsake the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”.
Referring to Britain Mrs. Gandhi said that during the 1965 Indo-Pak conflict, Britain had made the mistake of calling India an aggressor “But now they should see for themselves the facts, sequence of events, the happenings in Bangladesh and situation on the Indo-Pak borders”.
"My only expectation from Britain is that it would take an objective view of the situation,” she added.
Referring to Pakistan’s efforts to get U.N. observers in East Bengal, Mrs. Gandhi said she did not know what useful purpose these observers could serve in the present situation.
A large number of foreign dignitaries legislators of various countries, U.S. Senators, relief teams. Independent organizations. Ministers and others have visited the border of East Bengal with West Bengal and have witnessed the plight of the refugees. They have also seen the results of the reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistani Army on the people of Bangladesh but what had happened? “Has it solved the problem of Bangladesh? Has any of these big nations asked Pakistan to stop this genocide of the people of Bangladesh? No, they will not do it.”
The problem of Bangladesh, she said, could be solved only by asking the Pakistani Army to vacate Bangladesh so that these millions of people had left heir homes and hearths could go back and pursue their life peacefully.
“Peace can return to the subcontinent only if the Pakistani Army withdraws from the borders or India in the east as well as west” Mrs. Gandhi said.
Mrs. Gandhi said when Pakistan moved its Army to the India borders there was not a whisper by any of these notions or the U.N. But, from the time India had brought forward her farces to protect her territories, there was a hue and cry that peace was in danger. “I do not understand these things”. In her hour-long speech, Mrs. Gandhi asked whether the U.N. will be prepare to give an undertaking that Pakistan would not attack India, “In the event of any such attack, would the U.N. ensure tat any territories, occupied by Pakistan are vacated?”
Thrice Attacked
Before they talk of withdrawal of troops from the eastern or western border they should keep in mind that India was attacked thrice earlier by Pakistan but neither the U.N. nor the other powers condemned Pakistan once for that. IIow do they expect us to believe them now?
She said India did not move the Army to the western borders for ten days after Pakistani Army had occupied forward positions “We went to the U.N. observers and protested to them that Pakistan should not be allowed to bring her forces in the forward areas. After inquiries the U.N. observers told us that the Pakistani s were carrying on military exercises and would withdraw after ten days. Are the ten days not yet over? With all these happenings I do not understand how we can have any faith in them.
Mrs. Gandhi said that the idea of posting U.N. observers in East Bengal was to check the activities of the Mukti Bahini. But they were forgetting that all the checks and controls in Vietnam failed to stop the guerrilla activities. “I do think how observers can function when it is made pain by the Bangladesh Government that it cannot guarantee their safety” Mrs. Gandhi added.
She said “there is a charge that India is allowing Mukti Bahini to operate from her soil. How can we check it? Our border with East Bengal is so long that even if India deployed her entire army. It would not be able to stop them”.
The prime Minister said the U.N. or any nation was not prepared to look at the question in its entirety.
Mrs. Gandhi described as totally baseless the accusations that India was interfering in the internal affairs of a neighbor. We are simply telling the world what the Pakistani Army is doing inside Bangladesh. Killing thousands and thousands of human beings might not be of any concern to the world but India is worried and that is the reason which has prompted India in allowing the refugees to come to our soil.
“All these countries which are today shouting about India interfering in the internal affairs of Pakistan had interfered in the affairs of other countries whenever it suited them and here when we have not done any such thing. We are being accused of it. Well, it should not worry us much. Even a country like China, interfered in other nations affairs”.
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