DID MRS. GANDHI PLAN TO LIBERATE OCCUPIED KASHMIR ?
Last Friday November 19, along with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh a large number of MPs and ex-MPs assembled in the Central Hall of Parliament to pay floral tributes to Smt. Indira Gandhi before her portrait.
A question that had been on my mind since some weeks, was : when in 1971 Indiraji decided to help Sheikh Mujibur-Rahman carve out an independent Bangladesh for the Bengalis of East Pakistan, was she also simultaneously thinking of an operation in West Pakistan aimed to achieve two major objectives, namely :
(a) to balkanize West Pakistan, and
(b) to liberate Pakistan occupied Kashmir ?
When I say that this question had been on my mind since a few weeks, I say it because in September, Rupa Publications had sent me a book published by them under the title Bangladesh Liberation War : Myths and Facts. The author of this book is one B.Z. Khasru, described by the cover-flap as, “an award- winning journalist, (who) is publisher and editor of The Capital Express, a financial publication in New York.”
Till now I have never before heard any one else even suggest this. But this book carries ample data to show that whether or not Mrs. Gandhi actually contemplated to achieve these objectives, Washington’s top leaders of those times President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the President’s National Security Adviser were both convinced that Mrs. Gandhi was seriously thinking of action in that direction, and that the Soviets were likely to help India in achieving its objective.
While U.S. relations with India those days were very bitter, and Nixon strongly disliked Mrs. Gandhi, America had developed a great liking for both Ayub and Yahya. After Gen. Yahya Khan’s meeting with President Nixon at the White House Kissinger seriously probed with Pakistan whether they would be willing to use their influence with China for a U.S.-China rapprochement.
In fact during the Indo-Pak crisis in relation to East Bengal, U.S.A. not only dispatched its nuclear-armed Seventh Fleet to the Bay of Bengal, and warned Moscow “to stop India from destroying West Pakistan”, but also tried hard to make China threaten India against any armed intervention in East Pakistan.
If what U.S. apprehended was what actually had been planned, U.S.A.’s threats and moves really paid off.
In a chapter titled ‘Balkanize’ West Pakistan : Why Gandhi backed off, Khasru writes :
As the Indian military marched into East Pakistan, full throttle, and international efforts to stop the fighting gained momentum at the United Nations, Gandhi found herself between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, if she advanced her campaign to completely crush the Pakistani military in the West as she had promised to her cabinet months earlier, she would face a potential fight with Washington and Beijing and antagonize Moscow, which had wanted to end the war after capturing Dhaka. On the other hand, if she backed off, her colleagues would give her a hard time and India would lose a rare opportunity to permanently cripple an arch enemy.
On 10 December, Gandhi explained to her cabinet that if India accepted the U.N. ceasefire proposal after the Bangladesh liberation, it could avoid further complications with the United States and “might also rule out the current possibility of a Chinese intervention in Ladakh.”
India’s Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram and several other military leaders, however, opposed a ceasefire until India had taken certain unspecified areas of Kashmir and destroyed “the war mechanism of Pakistan.”
Gandhi overruled the opponents, saying that “for the moment India would not categorically reject” the U.N. ceasefire proposal. India would accept a ceasefire after the Awami League regime was installed in Dhaka.
I see no reason to doubt the findings of this author. But after reading this book I do wish some objective Indian historian does research into Indian source material and GOI documents to give the country a version of events as seen from our side, rather than on the basis principally of American sources, as Khasru has done.
On the whole for all interested in recent history of our sub-continent, a very interesting and readable book.
L.K. Advani
New Delhi
21 November, 2010
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November 23rd, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Dear Advaniji.
The blog is quite a revealation!
Please initiate the debate in PARLIAMENT on the scandals of the UPA governement and please activate the PARTY to take up agitations in the street in a very BIG WAY thru a series of them throught the year!!!
regards
PUNEETH KUMAR
BENGALURU
November 24th, 2010 at 3:06 am
dear respected sir,,i feel mrs gandhi felt that there were lots of human loss to india, too in form of soldiers,and also in form of bangladeshi hindu who were killed by pakistani army perssonel in response to indian victory, i have also gone with this book,,,, i find few missing aspect in this that were that,,,when india would have attacked western pakistan there were danger that pakistan would have been helped by american from iran side in form of mass destructive weapons as on western front they were blocked by USSR submarine and warships,,,,also in respose pakistan army would have killed thier innocent civillian living in pakistan who love india,,,and were against pakistan army.Also mrs gandhi wanted to show world and UN that india was against human right violation in bangladesh(east pakistan) not of occupaying pakistan but still pakistan occupied kashmir is our part of india , thnks a lot sir for bringing such a good topic every one has forgotten our war heros”indian army soldier”
November 25th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Sir,
How come BJP can allow Karnataka CM to continue as CM when there is clear case of nepotism and corruptions?
Just because RSS and some of the central leadership where not in favor of ruling out this man he is allowed to continue as CM. Just because local body election is round the corner he is enjoying the fruit of being CM.
What BJP would have stopped speaking against Ashok Chavan if he would have returned that flat booked on behalf of relatives in Adarsh Society?
People stood by BJP during and after 2002 riots as it was anger among Hindus that led to riots but when it comes to corruptions no Hindus will support such governing body.
Shows 2nd generation leaders in BJP are not competent enough to deal matter related to senior leadership.
Moreover in Bihar result BJP must praise BJP leaders only and not JD-U it seems that all leaders in BJP too think that BJP got seat because of Nitsh Kumar. Sir, don’t praise JD-U for good performance of BJP in Bihar on your blog.
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