Assam: What New Delhi's win can mean

Is it justified to make the statement that when India won a war against Pakistan in 1971, a frontier State had to pay a heavy price by providing shelter to millions of East Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals?

- NAVA THAKURIA

Is it justified to make the statement that when India won a war against Pakistan in 1971, a frontier State had to pay a heavy price by providing shelter to millions of East Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals? When the Union government in New Delhi supported the freedom fighters of the then East Pakistan, a new nation was born (out of Pakistan), but Bangladesh as a sovereign country was not later approached to return back its refugees and migrants from eastern India, precisely Assam.

The situation turned so complicated that when a kind of accord was signed in 1985 to address the historic Assam agitation, the cut-off year for detecting illegal migrants in the State had to be compromised with the national base year (slipping to 25 March 1971).

The issue came alive with a strong message from Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, where he categorically stated that the creation of Bangladesh was only a part of the goal and thus a historic opportunity was lost.

India's military victory (in 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War) was decisive and historic. It broke Pakistan in two and gave birth to Bangladesh. But while our soldiers delivered a stunning battlefield success, India's political leadership failed to secure lasting strategic gains, asserted the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, adding that 'what could have been a new regional order was reduced to a one-sided act of generosity'.

Had Indira Gandhi been alive today, the nation would have questioned her for mishandling the decisive victory won by the Indian armed forces, opined Sarma.

The prominent face of the saffron party in northeast India pointed out that no agreement was signed with Dhaka for sending back those illegal Bangladeshi migrants and as a result, Assam along with other north-eastern States and West Bengal have to face unchecked demographic changes instigating political instability and social unrest.