to the elected representatives, the already elected representatives of Bangladesh, is the only way by which the present deteriorating trend can be reversed and conditions can be created in Bangladesh which might facilitate the return of refugees.
I would at this stage also like to say that this is universally accepted and it is also realised-that India is determined to ensure that the refugees will return to Bangladesh and that India will not keep them. In the initial stages, some parallels were drawn to carlier occasions when soon after independence we were faced with the problem of refugees and for a variety of reasons-historical and humane-we did take an attitude based on human considerations and considerations of compassion. For historical reasons, we were prepared to subject ourselves to the strain of looking after millions and millions of refugees. Whatever may have been the earlier history, now after 20 years of independence, any person who is in Pakistan is a Pakistani citizen, is a Bangladesh citizen; or a West Pakistan citizen and that foreign national when he comes to India, if we look after him, it is on human considerations because geography has placed us in a position where we are the first recipient of this task. But we treat them as first and foremost the responsibility of the international community and if we do anything, it is in discharge of our being responsible members of the international community. We discharge this trust on behalf of the international community and the international community has to reimburse us for all the troubles and with all the expenses and with all the strains that we are bearing. It is also of importance for us to remember that any country who might give us aid for looking after these refugees is to a very small percentage trying to discharge that obligation which is squarely that of the international community or may be that this is a help to Pakistan because these are Pakistan and Bangladesh citizens whom we are feeding and any help that is given to look after these refugees should be help either to Pakistan, to Bangladesh or to international community. Whereas we in India appreciate this help as at any rate the immediate clear burden on us is reduced, we have made it absolutely clear that this is a situation which cannot be brought out. Who can judge in terms of money the immense socio-political tension that is generated by the presence of 9 million people in an area of our country which is already over-populated? Can anybody in terms of dollars or pounds or deutschmarks or yen determine the amount of economic, social and political tensions to which our entire country is subjected?
I will be quite frank in saying that after this sad development, the entire administration in whatever sphere it may be-whether it is the Central Government or the State Government-our primary and principal preoccupation has been to take steps to meet the situation, to look alter the refugees and also to look after our affairs so that we could continue with development and progress of our country. Is it possible by any calculation, by any statistics, to determine in terms of money, to determine in terms of pounds and dollars, the strain to which 55 crores of India people are being subjected? The number of school that we have closed to house these refugees, the number of hospitals where doctors are doing nothing else except to look after the refuges, the medical students who have disrupted their education to look after these refugees, those educationists and the volunteers who have abandoned their work and are looking after the refugees? Now these are the problems which we have to highlight because there may be a
