Media In India/elsewhere -2

[Guest]

Liberation? Or Lost Cause?
Given the crucial role Sam Maneckshaw played in the birth of Bangladesh, I feel Dhaka ought to have paid a more heart-felt homage to the late field marshal. It was only his military triumph that led to the country’s formation. One wonders now if Indira Gandhi was right in going to war in 1971. Political divisions between east and west Pakistan were so aggravated by ’70 that they would have anyway split soon, India’s intervention was not needed. By supporting the Mukti Bahini, we ended up worsening the refugee crisis. Sadly, we even failed to gain the loyalty of the Bangladeshi people. The cost of the war itself was a principal reason behind the turmoil in India during 1973-75, finally leading to the disastrous Emergency. And the war generated deep hatred towards India, made normalisation of relations almost impossible. To exact revenge, every Pakistani leader has supported the low-intensity war in Kashmir—another costly affair for us. It’s a bitter truth that after 1971, no country in South Asia, including Nepal, really trusts India. Indira Gandhi’s heavy-handed approach backfired badly.
J.S. Bandukwala, Vadodara