Indian Foreign Policy

Choose the Correct Answer

Correct Answer : Option c

Explanation
First Event: Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace and Friendship
Before the Bangladesh war of 1971, India signed a Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Soviet Union. Under the treaty, the two countries agreed on “immediate mutual consultations” in the event of either country facing a military threat and adopted appropriate effective measures. The treaty expressed the Soviet Union’s acceptance of India’s policy of non-alignment. However, the treaty was criticised by the US as an end of India’s non-alignment. But the treaty was India’s answer to the changing global scene. Since 1962 Pakistan and China had befriended each other against India on the theory that the enemy's enemy is a friend. The US was already close to Pakistan with the military alliances binding their relations. Richard Nixon, the US President, was actively working to establish relations with China aimed at balancing the perceived power of the Soviet Union.
Second Event: Bangladesh War
In the only democratic election held in Pakistan in December 1970, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won a majority (88 out of 144) in West Pakistan while Awami League won an absolute majority in East Pakistan by winning 167 seats. In accordance with the democratic theory, then military dictator in Pakistan Yahya Khan should have invited the leader of Awami League, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman to form the government. But the manipulative Bhutto was unwilling to have a Bengali as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Yahya Khan was also unwilling to transfer power to a Bangladeshi. Instead of transferring power, Yahya Khan imposed martial law, appointed Lt. General Tikka Khan as Governor and sent an army to quell the movement in East Pakistan in March 1971. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, popular leader of the Awami Party was arrested and imprisoned in West Pakistan. The enraged population of East Pakistan then came out on the streets to denounce military dictatorship. The military indulged in one of the worst human rights violations in world history. The intellectuals and supporters of the party were massacred; women were raped and there was a systematic genocide of Hindus in East Pakistan. It was a sheer war of hatred. According to the New York Times the Pakistani army painted “big yellow Hs on the Hindu shops” to be attacked and destroyed. As a result over 12 million Bangladeshis, Muslims and Hindus, came to West Bengal, mainly to Calcutta, as refugees. Feeding such a large number was an economic strain on India but added to that was the law and order problem for the government in West Bengal. Indira Gandhi, adept in political gamble, went on a tour of Western countries to inform the leaders of the human tragedy in East Pakistan. The US was then secretly engaged in opening up relations with China in which Pakistan had played a crucial role as a go between. At the same time she had also asked the army to prepare for military intervention. The army wanted the intervention to take place in the winter, as the passes in the Himalayas would be snowbound and Pakistan’s ally China could not militarily intervene in the crisis. Pakistan, to pre-empt India and force her to divert troops to the west, attacked on 3 December 1971. India intervened in the East in a massive way. The resulting war ended in the liberation of East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent country. The Indian forces were at their best when they accepted the surrender of over 90,000 Pakistani troops in the war. The friends of Pakistan, especially the US, were upset over the Indian victory in the war as it considered the Indian victory as that of the Soviet Union. Nixon, according to his memoirs, was keen to save West Pakistan from destruction by India. Thus, to save West Pakistan, he asked the nuclear powered warship Enterprise to move to the Bay of Bengal. In a well-coordinated move, the Soviet Union sent its nuclear powered ship to follow the US warship. The Soviet Union was the main supporter of India in the War, often using its veto power in the UN Security Council to nullify the US resolutions condemning India and asking her to withdraw armed forces from East Pakistan.
Third Event: Simla Agreement, 1972
The Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 was brought to an end by signing the Simla Agreement between Gandhi and Bhutto. Under the agreement both the countries “resolved to settle their differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations.” They also agreed to respect each other’s national unity and territorial integrity and not to assist or encourage any acts, which could affect the maintenance of peace in the region. Apart from these expressions of idealistic thought in concrete terms, Pakistan regained all its territories lost in West Pakistan in the War and also secured freedom for Prisoners of War taken in Bangladesh. POWs were actually released in 1973 after India obtained consent of Bangladesh. India gained assurances of good behaviour, which Pakistan was incapable of in practice.
Fourth Event: Nuclear Test of 1974
Mrs. Gandhi will also be remembered by the nation for her determination to take the nation on the path of a major power. Nehru had an idealistic approach to power. But Mrs. Gandhi was realistic to a great extent. Nehru said in 1954 in the Lok Sabha: “If you peep in the future and if nothing goes wrong—wars and like—the obvious fourth country in the world (after the US, Soviet Union and China) is India.” But Gandhi translated his idealism in action. One such act was her conducting a nuclear test in May 1974 in Pokhran. Ever since China conducted its nuclear tests in October 1964, there was domestic pressure on the Indian government to conduct nuclear tests. However, Lal Bahadur Shastri was silent on the demand. But his External Affairs Minister, Swaran Singh had said in the Lok Sabha in May 1966 that India had the capability to acquire nuclear capability in a reasonably short time. Apparently, Shastri as the PM in late 1964 had authorised the Atomic Energy Commission to work on the bomb design. The test conducted by Indira Gandhi was to demonstrate the Indian nuclear capability though it was claimed to be a peaceful nuclear explosion (PNE). Her logic ran like this. During the Bangladesh war in 1971 the US had used its nuclear powered enterprise to blackmail India to desist from attacking West Pakistan. Earlier, when Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s National Security Adviser was in India, he had informed the Indian policy makers that India should not bank on the US if China intervenes in the likely conflict between India and Pakistan. This was contrary to the prevailing Nixon Doctrine which had promised the US protection if any nonnuclear nation was threatened by a nuclear weapons state, in this case China. Thus Gandhi desired to make India self reliant in her security.