Why is Indian media continuously lying about the 1971 war?
By Nikhil Srivastava writes from India:
Yeah, I totally agree with your point that Bangladeshi people fought for more than 9 months for their freedom.
But I would like to add that when India went to help Then East Pakistan, they faced resistance from North by China(China and USA were against India for declaring war) , East and West by Pakistan Army, and on South by USA. Just to save people of Bangladesh India went on war(indirect) with 2 super powers and Pakistan on both western and eastern front.
A quote from detailed 1971 war report :
US sympathized with Pakistan, because of various reasons. Among them two reasons were that: firstly, Pakistan belonged to American led military Pact, CENTO and SEATO; secondly, US believed any victory of India will be considered as the expansion of Soviet influence in the parts gained by India with the victory, as it was believed to be a pro Soviet nation, even though they were non aligned.
In a telegram sent to US Secretary of State Will Roger, on March 28, 1971, the staff of the US consulate in Dhaka complained, ‘Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect its citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pakistan dominated government… We, as professional public servants express our dissent with current policy and fervently hope that our true and lasting interests here can be defined and our policies redirected in order to salvage our nation’s position as a moral leader of the free world.’
This brought China in the picture. US needed help from China and the messenger was Pakistan. US approached China very secretly on this issue, who was more than welcoming as it believed that their relations with US could improve from this onward.
During the second week of July, 1971, Kissinger arrived in Beijing, where he heard the words by then Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai: “In our opinion, if India continues on its present course in disregard of world opinion, it will continue to go on recklessly. We, however, support the stand of Pakistan. This is known to the world. If they [the Indians] are bent on provoking such a situation, then we cannot sit idly by.’ On this, Kissinger responded that China should know that the US also backs Pakistan on this issue.
Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister in those times decided to tour most of the Western capitals to prove Indian stand and gain support and sympathy for the Bengalis of East Pakistan. On November 4th and 5th she met Nixon in Washington. Nixon straight forwardly told her that a new war in the subcontinent was out of the question.
Now, had India not intervened the wait for Independence could have stretched from 9 months rebel to 19 months or more than that.
Now, at the time when world’s peace keeper(USA) was stopping India to stop the genocide, Indian Government took humanitarian stand to save people of Bangladesh. This is the reason that Every where its mention that It was India’s victory because they not only fought with Rebels in East Pakistan but also with other countries as well.
[The author is basically a Software developer, Studied at St. Paul’s School, Gorakhpur, Lives in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.]
Author: