Pak supporters neutralised : PM
From our Special Correspondent, New Delhi Nov. 13.—Countries which might have backed Islamabad in case of a conflict between India and Pakistan have been “neutralised”.
This is the overall impression with which the Prime Minister and her adviser have come back from their three-week foreign tour.
Returning from her tour today. Mrs. Gandhi said what was exercising her and the world leaders she had met was whether a solution to the Bangladesh problem could be found without a war.
She said emphatically that she had never told anybody that Bangladesh would join India or that India would be prepared to welcome Bangladesh to become a part of India.
The trip had take Mrs. Gandhi to Belgium, Austria, Britain, the USA, France, and West Germany. As she alighted from the chartered Air-India Boeing at the technical area of Palam Airport at 8-40 a.m., she was received by the President, her Cabinet colleagues, and many M. P.s.
She told reporters she was not sure whether American arms might come to Pakistan through third countries even though Washington had announced that all arms supplies to Pakistan had been stopped.
Replying to reporters questions, the Prime Minister reiterated that the only political solution worth it in Bangladesh was acceptable to the people there. “We have maintained that it is only the elected leaders who can accept any proposal.”
Asked about reports that General Yahya Khan might agree to meet Awami League Leaders but not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she said she doubted if these leaders would at all speak with the Pakistani President if the Sheikh was excluded from the talks. She get no information from any of the countries visited whether the Sheikh was alive or dead.
The only comment she made on the reported statement by Mr. William Rogers, US. Secretary of State, that the USA would stay out if a war, broke out between India and Pakistan was : “I do not know.” It was “not quite correct to say that there is no common ground between me and President Nixon.”
She had told Mr. Willy Brandt, the West German Chancellor and other international leaders that they should tell Islamabad what the likely consequences of the Bangladesh problem might be. Mr. Brandt would write to General Yahya Khan. If all world leaders wrote to him there might be “some result“, she felt.
It was not true that she had ever said that in case of a conflict between India and Pakistan it would break out in the eastern region. What she had said was that the trouble and started in Bangladesh giving is to tension between the two counties and that, unless the root cause was removed, the tension would remain. “Troop concentrations on the western border do not bring about a settlement of the Bangladesh problem.”
A foreign correspondent asked if India would absorb the refugees as her citizens because they were mostly Hindus. The Prime Minister said India was a secular country and made no distinction between man and man on the ground of religion.
“We will not accept these refugees as Indian citizens” she said with great emphasis.
She said there was a change in the Chinese attitude as one could see from Press reports and other sources”. She did not know how soon Ambassadors could be exchanged between New Delhi and Peking.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 14.11.1971