\ყ88 বাংরাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ দ্বাদশ খন্ড SHRIAW ADHESHWER PRASAD SINHA (Bihar): You do not know that, Shri Chagla? MR. CHAIRMAN: Please do not interrupt. SHIR M. C. CHAGLA: I am sure my hon, friend is wiser than I am. SHRI AWADHESHWAR PRASAD SINHA: You don't know what support we are giving. Being an ex- Foreign Minister, you are supposed to know better. Do not be partisan. Mr. Chagla, You should be impartial so far as facts are concerned. SHRI M. C. CHAGLA; I do not know way interruption is called for. Have I misstated any fact? SHRI PITAMBER DAS (Utter Pradesh): some people rush in where angels fear to tread. SHRIM. C. GHAGLA: The question that I want to ask is this: Either the hon. Minister or other hon. Members will answer that I believe. What have we done to support Bangladesh effectively? The only way to support Bangladesh was to have immediately recognized their Government when it was formed. I say this with deliberation and with a sense of full responsibility that the failure of the Government to recognize Bangladesh at that time is the greatest blunder we have committed. I say history will never forgive us for this. Recognition of Bangladesh would have meant first of all recognition of a Government (as a neighbor) which was friendly to Indian. In the second place it would have undone much of the harms of partition. In the third place, it would have completely buried once and for all the two-nation theory which is one of the most evil doctrines that has been started before partition and which led to what we all know the breaking up of our motherland. Why was this recognition not given? I want to examine the reasons. First it was said that internationally we could not recognize the government. I Sir, emphatically differ from that view. As far as I know the international law, I do not pretend to be an expert--it is clearly established that whether to recognize a country or not is entirely within the discretion of the country which is to give recognition. It was within our discretion either to recognize Bangladesh or not. would depend on our national interest. Secondly, Sir, it was said that there was no properly constituted Government or that conditions did not exist with regard to the formation of the Government which would justify the recognition of Bangladesh. There again, Sir, I differ. One of the tests for recognition is legitimacy, A country has to ask itself, "Is the Government I am recognizing legitimate". If it is then that country has every right to recognize the other country. Now, Sir, I ask this question: "On whose side is legitimacy? Is it on sid of Yahya Khan or is it on the side of Mujibur Rahman?" Sir, what has happened in Bangladesh was not a military coup where a legitimate Government was overthrown and till the Government was properly established and people could give allegiance to it so that some sort of legitimacy is there. But in this case, it is clear beyond doubt that the legitimate Government of Bangladesh, even of Pakistan, was the Government constituted by
