THE DAILY MIRROR, PHILIPPINES, DECEMBER 14, 1971
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
… The Indian Prime Minister carries a lot of credibility when she says that her country had no recourse but to use force. The repressions in East Pakistan had sent nearly ten million refugees into India. It costs some four million dollars a day to feed them. Not all of them, however, are bonafide refugees. Some are Pakistani infiltrators whom India cannot afford to shelter in any case.
As the source of the repression, the Pakistan Government must bear a major part of the blame. But others are guilty as well. The big powers could have used pressure on Pakistan to stop the repressions, reverse the influx of refugees; and perhaps even lend their good offices, to secure autonomy for East Pakistan. They failed to do so and India had to act to protect her interests.
With Washington unable or unwilling to exercise peaceful intervention, war became inevitable. Curiously, Peking is on the U.S. side now as far as faultfinding is concerned. War, like politics, makes strange bedfellows.