Sri N.C. Chatterjee, Dr. Meghnad Saha, Sri Makhan Lal Sen and Sri Charu Chandra Roy have issued the following statement:-
We have carefully read Pandit Nehru’s statement on the working of the Bharat Pakistan Minority Agreement.
Judged by the test of stoppage of the minority from Eastern Pakistan, the Pact has not yet achieved its object. Certainly the exodus still continues. Although the number has recently declined, it is still very high.
We would appeal to the Government of Bharat to face the stark realities of the situation however unpleasant. Inspite of cordiality at the top level there has occurred a large number of incidents of oppression on the minority community in the various parts of East Bengal since the Agreement was signed in Delhi. Dr. Mookerjee has publicly announced a list of over 500 such incidents which have occurred during the period April 9 to April 30, as illustrative of the insecure condition still prevailing in East Bengal. They have not yet been contradicted. The victims were all non-Muslims and unfortunately they were spread over various districts —Dacca, Faridpur, Barisal, Khulna, Jessore, Mymensingh, Tippera, Kustia, Chittagong and Sylhet.
NEHRU MISINFORMED
Pandit Nehru is reported to have said that Dr. Mookerjee’s figure of the total number of refugees from East Bengal has been exaggerated. It is significant that Pandit Nehru has not yet got the correct figures on which he is basing his statement. According to him about three millions would be the correct figure. It would be interesting to know from what source Pandit Nehru has got his figures. But one fact should be remembered that the officially collected figures relate only to centres where the Government can regulate the flow of refugees. But there are heaps of other people who cross the frontier but who are not counted or enumerated by any official agency. Even on the official figures Dr. Mookerjee’s statement is not exaggerated. A number of Congress leaders headed by Sri Arun Chandra Guha, M.P., have stated, “Near about 40 lakhs of Hindus have come from East Bengal” since the partition.
Pandit Nehru is reported to have said that the most encouraging future is that those who are now returning to East Bengal include a number of women and children. Obviously Pandit Nehru has been misled. This is the result of wishful thinking on the part of some propagandists. Only a small fraction of the people who had come from East Bengal has gone back and the big majority of them has not taken their women and children with them. The homeward trek back to Pakistan is illusory when less than five per cent go back to wind up their affairs.
SINNER SAVED
Acharya Kripalani’s paper “The Vigil” has rightly pointed out that the bully in East Pakistan has realised that hooliganism, pays dividends. So long as this impression continues and the Pakistan Government does not or cannot take adequate steps to punish the miscreants and their official collaborators, it is difficult for the women and children to go back to Pakistan. It is useless to ask them to go back in the present context. A number of M.L.A.'s of East Bengal has stated, “Anti-social elements are yet active In harassing, annoying and oppressing In various ways the minorities who are suffering from a complete moral collapse and as such are not in a position to resist them.” The idealist ostrich would ignore facts at the peril of the country.
The Pact has successfully rehabilitated Pakistan In the eyes of the world. The leader of Pakistan is today utilising it in America. He is pleading for arms and ammunitions to ward off aggression from Bharat. After all Bharat is alleged to be potential aggressor by the signatory to the Pact, from Mr. Liaquat All’s point of view. He has tided over the economic and political crisis which had placed East Bengal practicelly on the brink of the precipice and he has managed to gloss over the carnage enacted in the State. If the substratum of the Delhi Agreement has been frustrated by any body, it has been done by the Pakistan leader.
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