Letter to Editor Sentinel, 21st Dec'06 The Lost Chance in Bangladesh
Vijay Divas was celebrated on December 16 by the defence forces to mark the liberation of Bangladesh by the Indian Army. But it is rather surprising that top leaders like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherji were conspicuous by their absence from the function. Whenever any war is launched, it must be a decisive one just like the Second World War. After the end of this world war, people heaved a sigh of relief because of the defeat of hostile nations like Germany, Japan and Italy the nations that had brought about devastation in the world. But in the case of the Bangladesh War, it was quite the opposite. The Northeast, which was a region of peace, became an area of turmoil following this war. This was due to the war's lack of decisive character. The Bangladesh War of 1971 would have been a decisive one had the Indian Government bothered to take some radical steps after the war. The Indian Army should have stayed in Bangladesh for at least 10 years until a permanent wall like the Great Wall of China on the Indo-Bangladesh border was erected after Dhaka's invasion so that no illegal Bangladeshi could infiltrate across the border to the Indian side. A Constitution should have been adopted in Bangladesh that would guarantee security to all Hindus living in that country. Hindus are now virtually non-existent in Bangladesh, comprising not even five per cent of total population of that country. But in 1947, Hindus in East Pakistan (today's Bangladesh) comprised 35 per cent of the total Bangladeshi population. The above Constitution ought to have had a provision for retaliatory military action by India in case the Hindus in Bangladesh were threatened. All Bangladeshi infiltrators who entered India during the Bangladesh War ought to have been deported immediately from India by 1972. But the political leadership of India did not allow the Army to execute the above-mentioned steps only in the interest of vote-bank politics so that the power-hungry `secular' leaders could be repeatedly elected to the Legislature. Prosenjit Phookan, Guwahati-5.
