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).
