University of Virginia Library

Chinese Game

If the fight in Bangla Desh
were to drag on for a long
period of time, the Awami
leaders would become
discredited and the leftists
would take over the leadership.
This leftist leadership would
with encouragement and help
from Peking, link up with
leftists of Assam and West
Bengal and set the whole of
east India aflame.

To prevent this nightmare
from becoming a reality, India
has to do what it is doing now.
It is not Communist China's
friendship with Pakistan that
has made China resentful of
India's decisive and bold
action. What has embittered
China most is that India has
seen through the Chinese game
and thwarted it, at least
temporarily. We say
temporarily, because there is a
possibility that by doing too
much India may weaken the
very forces it wants to
strengthen and strengthen
those elements which it wants
to eliminate.

India has assumed control
of the Bengali Liberation
Army; its army will remain in
Bangla Desh until law and
order is fully established; and
India is sending civilian
officers, doctors, engineers and
other types of experts to set up
a civilian administration in
Bangla Desh.

These steps, besides raising
the spectre of gradual
absorption of Bangla Desh by
India, really undermine the
leadership of the Awami
League. Bengalis are fighting
for independence, not for a
change of masters. Any
attempt to absorb Bangla Desh
will be bitterly resented and
opposed by 75 million people
and will eventually bring for
India—at least for east
India—the nightmare that it
wants to avoid.