Grace unreciprocated
PAKISTAN’S military debacle was retribution; but it would have done well to save its diplomatic face by showing the modicum of decency in accepting the consequences of defeat. It seems Mr. Bhutto is not quite blind; he evidently knows the wreckage of his country’s prestige needs immediate salvaging. But when it comes to playing the game with India. Mr. Bhutto just connot get a move on. One example of this hedgehog aspect of the man is his refusal to take even the first step in doing his bit ‘in the exchange of prisoners of war. Not that Indian p.o.w.s are legion; they must be appreciably short of 2.136 which is the official figure of the number of missing Indian military personnel. But fair is fair and the return of these prisoners is the least one can expect from a country trounced in a war of its making. There are no thorny issues of chastisement and international law attached to the question on the Pakistani side. And the Indian demand gains added strength as Mr. Bhutto intensifies his campaign for the release of Pakistani prisoners, presumably because the bulk of them are from Punjab, which is where the Pakistani President’s political support lies.
India, on the other hand, could make out a case for procrastination, all the more because there is the Bangladesh insistence on the trial of war criminals to consider, not to speak of her position of strength deriving from a just victory. Yet she has already started the ball rolling. The Indian Red Cross Society has submitted the first list of Pakistani p.o.w.s to the International Committee of the Red Cross for return to their homeland. Such grace is matched only by the Indian Army’s humane treatment of the prisoners whose days in confinement have received wide coverage in the Press. But it is perhaps futile to ask the Pakistanis to take a leaf out of India’s book of behaviour.(Editorial)
Reference: Hindustan Standard 6. 01. 1972