THE STATESMAN, JULY 5, 1971
SANGH WANTS ARMS AID FOR FREEDOM FIGHTERS
From Our Special Representative
Udaipur. July 4. – The Jana Sangh will launch a mass satyagraha from August I, in New Delhi to urge the Government to recognize Bangladesh and give its provisional Government all moral and material support including military assistance to enable it to free the country from the clutches of West Pakistani military rule.
This was announced by the party president Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee at the General Council session this morning.
Mr. Vajpayee also announced that the satyagraha would continue for 11 days till August 11 and on the last day of the current session of Parliament-August 12-about 200,000 Jana Sangh volunteers would demonstrate in front of Parliament House in protest against the Governments inaction on the Bangladesh issue. He however, said the party would give up the agitation plan and offer all possible support to the Centre if it agreed to accept the Sangh’s demands by August 1.
During the debate on the Bangladesh resolution many delegates said that the leadership was only asking the Government to take firm action; it gave the impression as if the party itself had no duty to discharge on the Bangladesh Issue. Replying to them Mr. Vajpayee said it was the Jana Sangh founder Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who had resigned from the Central Government on the East Bengal refugee issue. It had also launched a mass movement for Jammu and Kashmir at the time of the Goa invasion. The party therefore, would not keep quiet when thousands of people were being butchered in Bangladesh, he added.
After Mr. Vajpayee’s Speech the resolution on Bangladesh was adopted with certain amendments, adds UNI. These included release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his followers arrangements for military training to refugees to enable them to win their freedom and screening of evacuees.
The resolution put before the country a six-point programme of action and directed all its party units to educate and mobilize public opinion to force the Government to act in the wider interest of the country.
It opposed dispersal of refugees to far off places. It demanded that refugee camps be put up on the Bangladesh border so as to facilitate their return as soon as the occupation forces of Pakistan were thrown out of the new republic. It called for effective military action to repel Pakistani aggression on the Indian borders.
The resolution also demanded effective curb on Sheikh Abdullah and others who had consistently refused to condemn Pakistan’s military junta for its genocide in Bangladesh.
It said that steps should be taken to secure cooperation of all patriotic organizations and elements in the task of repelling Pakistani aggression securing Justice for Bangladesh people and safeguarding the honor of integrity and security of India.
The resolution caned for basic reappraisal of India’s foreign-policy.