ACT OF BETRAYAL
PITY the United Nations whose Charter is a catalogue of all the lofty ideals for which man has lived and died. This world organization, which was conceived, in a moment of great triumph and greater humility to steer the nations along the straight and narrow path of peace and good conduct, has become a helpless tool in the hands of partisans of war and international misbehaviour. Under the leadership of that grotesque twosome. American and China, it has passed a resolution calling for an inmediate cease-fire and withdrawal of troops by India and Pakistan from each other’s territory. It has condohed the murder of democracy in Bangladesh, a genocide matched only by Hitler’s, and the barbaritic that have caused the biggest exodus in history. It has become an accomplice in Yahya’s crime against humanity and dealt a heavy blow to its already moribund self.
India has rightly rejected the resolution, leaving the glorified debating club to sloe in its own impotence. The U.N. may set its face against the reality, but it cannot wish away Bangladesh. If it were sincere in its peace efforts it would have given a hearing to the new nation which has been born out of the agony of the last eight months. By excluding Bangladesh the U.N. has sought to strangle a nation recognised by India. The resolution is a wicked trap; had India not turned it down. It would have given the U.N. a pretext for stationing an international soldiery masquerading as peace observers to fight the Mukti Bahini which is determined not-to rest till Bangladesh is free. Such endeavours for a phoney peace do not carry any moral weight; the support of a motivated majority do not redeem them.
Those who have converted the U.N. into a pocket borough are banking on India’s weakness for the so called world opiniona weakness that has no place in the policy of firmeness the situation demands. The U.N. itself has opted for immorality by siding with Yahya Khan, and India cannot have any qualms in rejecting all U.N. proposals till the world organization acknowledge and guarantees the existence of Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign State. In the process; India will know who her real friends are. Yugoslavia and the U.A.R. have already voted with Pakistan, making a mockery of the neutral Third World; perhaps they hope this gesture will ender them to China which has surpassed even the U.S. in perverse solicitude for Pakistan. The Soviet Union has once again supported India’s righteous stand: so have most of the East European countries and Cuba. The abstention by the U.K. and France, among others, is a pleasant surprise. Obviously, they realised that the resolution evaded the realissue. They have sat too long on the fence: a little more reflection would make them appreciate the logic and compulsion behind the Indian stand. (Editorial]
Reference: Hindustan Standard 09.12.1971