বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বাদশ খণ্ড)/১২৩
| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| বাংলাদেশের প্রশ্নে আচার্য বিনোবার সাক্ষাৎকারঃ ডেমোক্র্যাসি এণ্ড মিলিটারীজম আর ইনকমপিটবল | পিপলস এ্যাকশন | ...মে, ১৯৭১ |
Vinoba Says
DEMOCRACY AND MILITARISM ARE INCOMPATIBLE
A group of Sarvodaya workers led by Shri Devendra Kumar Gupta met vinobaji on April 4 at his ashram in Paunar and discussed Bangla Desh situation. A free-rendering of the discussion by Prabhash Joshi is given below:
Vinoba: The All-India Radio has broadcast this morning a message of sympathy by the Soviet President. I am happy at this. What are Sheikh Abdullah and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan doing? Have they said anything?
DKG: No.
Vinoba: Why are they silent? They should oppose the genocide in Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds alone. Where is gaffar Khan?
DKG. Perhaps he does not like, the disintegration of Pakistan.
Vinoba: Mujib was the leader of Bangla Desh. They (the military had indulged in a show of talks with him and then launched an all-ory rulers). They are also using bombs. And when bombs are dropped, they kill. A bomb does not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims, men at attack old and young. What is going in Bangla Desh is total destruction. If they were determined to impose their will on the people of Bangla Desh by terrorizing them, why did stage that drama of democracy?
DKG: People say India has also deployed army in West Bengal.
Vinoba: So what? Is the Indian army indulging in genocide? In West Bengal the need is to protect the borders. I have called it a ‘bottleneck,’ If India maintains an army, then it is necessary to deploy it on the borders.
Pakistan too had posted army in East Bengal. But they wanted to terroise the people. That is why they brought tanks, bombers and other weapons for an all-out war.
DKG: But then this sort of genocide went on for more than a year in Biafra and no one could stop it.
Vinoba: England did raise her voice against it. Even here Soviet President has come out with a statement on purely humanitarian grounds. But America has termed it an internal affair of Pakistan. This is the measure of US wisdom.
There had been systematic repression land exploitation of the people of East Bengal by West Pakistan. The majority of the people lived in East Bengal but they were not fairly represented in the army and administrative services of Pakistan. The army and the administrative services had an overwhelming majority from West Pakistan. The benefits of development have by and large gone to West Pakistan. East Bengal remained poor and even today they are the poorest people in the entire subcontinent. In the elections, Mujib’s Awami League got 98 per cent of votes and won a majority in the National Assembly of Pakistan. But they were deceived and denied a democratic rule.
When Ghaffar Khan came here, I asked him: Pakhtoonistan is being suppressed by the military regime. Do you want India to raise this issue at the UN? He replied, “It will be untimely. Democracy is coming to Pakistan and we will see what we can do ourselves”. He had absolute faith in the restoration of democracy. Now that democracy has been buried in East Bengal, why is he keeping mum?
DKG: But how can we force the aggressor to sit across the table to seek a peaceful solution?
Vinoba: Moral pressure will work. You must mobilize would opinion to bring pressure on the military regime of West Pakistan.
DKG: Can the two wings of Pakistan remain together now?
Vinoba: This would happen only when the ABC Triangle comes into being (ABC Triangle is Vinoba’s idea of a confederation constituting the triangle of Afghanistan, Burma and Ceylon with the Sub-continent of India and Pakistan). But today even an Indo-Pak confederation is not possible. The wars of 48 and 65 have blinded the people to think along these lines. If there is any wisdom left in Bangla Desh, they will never remain with West Pakistan after what they have suffered at the hands of the military regime. Moreover, there are no common factors between the two wings. Islam has failed to weld them together. Entire Europe is Christian, but Christianity has not united them into a nation. Religion is outdated now. Hunger is the main issue. Who is hungry? Of course, Bangla Desh, and hungry people have no religion.
DKG: Should we call an Asian conference to mobilize world opinion?
Vinoba: Yes, this can be done. And it will be easier to organise it.
During my walking tours all over the country, I was in East Bengal for 18 days. I saw that people of Bangla Desh are very proud of their language. They used to say that the Bengal spoken in Calcutta is not pure Bangali. Their Bengali is pure ‘gold’. And their Bengali has more Sanskrit words than any Indian language. Malayalam, among Indian languages, has the highest number of Sanskrit words but the Bengali of East Bengal has a still higher number of Sanskrit words.
I used to ask them: “Who are responsible for making the Bangla mind?” and they always gave four names: Buddha, Mohammed, Chaitanya and Tagore. These are the four great personalities who have shaped the Bangla mind. They have adopted Tagore’s song Amar Sonar Bangla Desh as their national anthem. They love Tagore’s poetry so much. But the rulers of Pakistan had banned Tagore’s poetry on their radio.
DKG: There is fear in people’s mind that East Bengal may secede and become independent.
Vinoba: We must not worry about it. Mujib never wanted an independent Bangladesh. All that he wanted was autonomy. But the military denied him this by merely staging the drama of democracy and then burying it under the military boots. So Mujib was v forced to declare independence.
DKG: Should we appeal to the Government of India to recognize Bangladesh.
Vinoba: We are experts in giving impractical suggestions (laughter). I too have a suggestion. It is that India should disband her army. The democracy which relies on its army is not a true democracy. This has been proved in Bangladesh. Setting this example before the word. India should declare that to protect our democracy we are disbanding our army. This will bring a tremendous moral pressure not only on Pakistan but on all the nations of the world. If you disband your army nobody will dare attack you. And even if someone attacks you, the world powers won’t let it happen.
DKG: But then how would we protect our people?
Vinoba: The people are already very well protected because no one is really depending on the army (laughter). The suggestion to disband the army is not as impractical as it sounds. What is impossible in normal times but it can be done in times of crisis. Your Government has a two thirds majority now and they are in a position to do it. If you do it, it will have a tremendous impact on the world.
DKG: What can we do immediately?
Vinoba: You should mobilize public opinion not only in India but also in other countries. You can tell the people of America that the arms given by their Government are being used in East Bengal for perpetrating genocide. They can bring pressure on their Government and their Government in turn can persuade other countries, especially our neighbors, not to co-operate with Pakistan in the massacre of Bangla Desh People. You can ask your own Government to take up this issue at the UN.
In India, you can organise all-Party meetings all over the country to mobilize public opinion. You can collect funds for relief work. You can send medical teams to the borders.
DKG: How can the people of Bangla Desh resist the army nonviolently?
Vinoba: Under Mujib’s leadership the people of Bangla Desh have given an excellent example of complete non-cooperation. But they have not shown the powers of nonviolence. Indeed, no country has done it. There are many examples of non-cooperation in the world. And even in India the power of nonviolence has not been used. I was hoping that Mujib might generate it. But he was deceived and the military has crushed any hopes by its all-out attack.