India's intervention in Pakistan was purely strategic. It got the opportunity to exercise its power in the region. India being the more 'affluent' part of former India could exercise such right. The problem was no one analysed or came up with a solution on how to solve the Pakistan issue. But then thats common of South Asian politics. No country benefits from partition, socially, politically, economically the country is always left behind in the race of 'modernisation'.
Was India right to intervene? Well, anyone who saw what was happening in the genocide should have felt the obligation to stop it and resolve it or stall it if thats not possible. But when India comes into question you can't help think of the ulterior motives. The propaganda that followed. Glorifying Indira Gandhi's role, when really she was a really bad politician. She could relate to her people, arouse interests, win elections, but thats about it. Implementation and planning? not her forte unliker her fatehr.
From what I remember of 1971, it was a humanitarian concern, with millions of people pouring into the border states to escape Pakistani atrocities, - that compelled India to intervene. Having helped Bangladesh, we did not capitalize on this to bargain for gains elsewhere. I think the killing of Sheik Mujibur Rahman was the start of the decline in the relations. Now Bangladesh has become a problem for us. Look what happened in Nepal - the people were revoling - but we did not intervene to save a Hindu King. We did nothing to create a strategic space for ourselves (out of fear of the CPIM, I guess). In Sri Lanka, we are not able to help our Hindu brothers. Tomorrow, Bhutan will face the same problem. The point is, we should have half of East Pakistan, or parts of POK in return -we did neither. We are now watching helplessly as Bangladeshis continue to pour in illegally, and they keep bluffing that there is no illegal immigration. They are so shameless, they will not even support us for Security council seat!
Verdict: we helped them in fighting Pakis - the right thing to do. But we failed to gain anything out of it (except that Indira Gandhi made a name for herself).
RE:We lack strategic vision
by Biswapriya Purkayastha on Dec 08, 2006 08:58 PM Permalink
This is precisely what I am saying. And does anyone think Pakistan would post nukes on the East, and if so, whether it would make a difference? What stops the pakistanis from posting nukes NOW on their ally Bangladesh's territory unofficially?
If India had not done it, Pakistan would have been eternally mired down in holding on to Bangladesh, facing financial and phsyical problems, owing to problems in logistics as the wings are too far apart. this would have kept it from indulging in terrorism in India and Kashmir. But Indian leaders are hardly intelligent, they are too busy being pompus and taking actions which they hope would bring wah wahs from their chamchas and hoping for international wah wahs, which incidentally they never got !!
we should not ask the question whether it was right or wrong to help create Bangladesh.Because,at the end of the day we still have to deal with Islamic terrorism which they support regardless of their independence or unification with pak.It Seems terrorism on innocent cevilians is the only thing that unites them.
yes, What India did was correct but it should have followed later on too by maintaining its strong influence.B'Desh is becoming anti-India diue to successful penetration of Pakistani influence.India should have been strongrather than playing defensive everytime, even if it the question of its borders with neighbours.Our leaders have myopic vision and are not true strategists like the Chinese.
I dont think it is a mistake rather was a very ill calculated step for India. To understand Bangladesh you have to go to its root cause of existence. Bangladesh also known as East Pakistan then came to existence because of religious fundamentalism and intolerance during parathion. They are Muslim first and then Bengali. However after spending two decade the Muslim Bengali people some what understood that they are not going to get the pie out of Punjabi dominated west Pakistan. So after religion then come their culture and their so called love for Bengali language rather bahasa andolon. Unfortunately religion is always a big issue in any Muslim country and Bangladesh is not an exception. So once Bangladesh forgot the pain of autocratic rulers from Pakistan, its people naturally choose the religious fundamentalist path, which is the root cause of its sheer existence. Invariably it is one the most poor country and it has no solution at hand for ever increasing hunger. Only solution is religious fanaticism so that people forget their real issues and indulge in jihad. Unfortunately for some countries religion is far more important than humanity and Bangladesh is one of them.
I should gift all the editors of Rediff a Diamond Ring. The reason being, you are good at Fuelling Hatred by initiating topics like these "Did we do the Right Thing". Now as usual Rediffmail will be poured by lots & lots of Communal hatred messages and it will be a sense of Victory for all the Rediff editors... Long live Rediff?? Let the Money flow in your pockets, by fuelling Hatred with debatable topics. Anyway I know that my message will not be published, but it is only for the editors... Regards Ibrahim.....
RE:Fuel up the Hatred
by mahesh on Dec 06, 2006 06:37 PM Permalink
Hello My dear friend , may your view is right about rediff , but as being educated we have to analyse our situation in the country and we have to let us emotions out through somewhere..., one way rediff is great job getting topics to the public and sharing the views between the public . you must notice that rediff have many message boards apart this kind of topics ... becoz u are concentrated only on these topic , may neglecting the other topics .., dont be predetermined .
thanks for your view my dear INDIAN...............
hey we heplped bangladesh in every po0ssible way and what do they give us ??? nothing at all.they trouble us in evry possible way. what more do they expect us to do??????????
History speaks for itself. I don't have anything against Islam but when it comes to religion muslim religion has proved they are blind.
Bangaldesh is one classic example of that kind. India has liberated Bangaldesh and now bangaldesh became pain in our ass. What binds the relation between pakistan and bangldesh? Answer is simple religion.
I argue my indian muslims to take a note of this and to mix with indian stream. I would like the world to view them as Indian Muslims rather than the relgious fundamentalists. Having said this I am not saying all muslims are bad but they should see the world beyond their religion.
Answers can at best be hypothetically right. My take is that it is like half a dozen or six. 1. Situation in 1971 demanded that we help Mukthi Bahini. With number of refugees going beyond 10 million what else could you do? 2. It is true that Bangla is, was and will be backstabbing. But, Franly if Bangal had not been formed also we would have the had same problem 3. Problems like infiltration, atrocities against minotrities too would not have been less even if Bangla had not separated. Muslim friendly Communist governments who are out to dismantle India would still have gladly helped Pakistanis to infilter 4. The biggest loss for India is the loss of troops, lives of some brave soldiers, and hefty amount of relief and aid provided to build "New Bangla" The blame should be on really on handful people - Lord, ney Mr Curzon who broke Bengal in 1905 and Greedy Nehru for agreeing for braking India in 47 without any benefit to India. (At the least India should have asked for complete exchange of population of North India. That way infiltration could have been easily found out and Islamization of secular India would have take much longer than current estimate of less than 100 years
