Weekly New Age (New Delhi)

Last week we analysed the results of six months of fighting in Bangla Desh and found that militarily the position of the Pak army can be made untenable if the present attrition Tate is stepped up. Victory is no longer in doubt; the task now is to hasten it- But to do that several pitfalls are to be avoided and several lacunae are to be made up. The most dangerous pitfall ahead is the attempt by some imperialist powers to force the leaders of the struggle into a compromise on the key question of complete independence. From some time past USA, through its various agents, has been putting pressure on the leaders of Bangla Desh to give up the demand for complete independence and settle with Yahya Khan on the basis of some measure of provincial autonomy. Some leaders of Bangla Desh who had gone weary of the struggle were inclined to pursue this proposal. But the others overruled them. The formation of the five-party cabinet consultative committee to conduct the liberation struggle finally stalled this move. The US lobby has now renewed its ‘peace’ offensive on a much bigger scale. Simultaneously Yahya Khan has begun his ‘civilianisation’ drive. The danger inherent in Yahya’s recent moves are to be under-estimated and brushed aside as moves to impress his Western masters only. These moves are very much directed at Bangla Desh and if the leaders of Bangla Desh are not careful it may very well disrupt their ranks.

Yahya tried all means to settle the Bangla Desh issue in his favour. He tried a quick military solution; the freedom, fighters got him bogged into an expensive long drawn out war. He wanted to collect a respectable number of collaborators, to foist a puppet government on Bangla Desh; but stooges, were in short supply. He tried to internationalise the conflict through the UNO; but most of the big powers refused to get involved. He threatened war on India; the Indo-Soviet Treaty sobered him down. With all other options exhausted Yahya is now trying to reopen a dialogue with the leaders of Bangla Desh so that he can persuade at least a section of them to compromise on the basis of some measure of provincial autonomy. In this regard Yahya is ably guided and assisted by the USA, with Iran and some other countries acting as honest brokers. Yahya has taken some shrewd measures to pave the way for reopening a dialogue with the leaders of Bangla Desh. One of such measures is the recent decision to apportion 54 per cent of accruals from central taxes to East Bengal. More such measures may follow and one should not be surprised if Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is released and invited for talks.

One should not also be surprised if a stage-managed palace coup in Islamabad removes Yahya from presidentship and installs someone else in his place to create a ‘‘proper psychological atmosphere” for reopening talks with Bangla Desh leaders.

All these are likely to be on the cards to soften Bangla Desh leaders or at least a section of them to agree to give up the demand of complete independence and settle for provincial autonomy. A compromise on the key issue of complete independence is thus main danger before the liberation struggle of Bangla Desh. If this happens it will be a departure from the declaration of independence made by Sheikh Muiib before his arrest and the formal declaration of independence made at Mujibnagar on April 17. This will also violate the broadcast of the Acting President, Nazrul Islam, on June 6 and the oath to carry the fight to complete victory taken at the conference of Awami League MNAs and MPAs in early July. But it is highly doubtful if Yahya or any of his mentors "will ever succeed in pulling off such a compromise, for the wall of human corpses which now separate Bangla Desh from Pakistan can not just be washed away. And what more, the thousands of student and peasant youths who have taken up arms to win freedom are most unlikely to lay down their arms for a promise of provincial autonomy which was once made before the fateful March 25 and rejected by the leaders and people of Bangla Desh. So it may be taken that the fight will continue till victory.

To hasten victory the thousands of young men who are now streaming into the training camps should be given adequate training. Recruitment to the Mukti Bahini is no longer a problem for literally thousands are coming in every day. What is lacking is a proper arrangement to train them. The seriousness of this problem has been underlined by the tragic episode of a group of young men from Faridpur. They trekked from camp to camp for training. But each was brimful and there was no room for them. Heart-broken they went back to fend for themselves. On the way 52 of them were butchered by the Pak army. The urgent task of the moment therefore, is to open more camps to accommodate and train the thousands of young men who are prepared to make any sacrifice to win freedom. The second major problem is of equipment. The Mukti Bahini has now proved beyond doubt that it can hit at the enemy anywhere in Bangla Desh. But it is handicapped by lack of adequate fire power. Given better fire power Mukti Bahini is now in a position to decimate the Pak army at a rate which will soon cripple it. To hasten victory improving the fire power of the Mukti Bahini is a must. In matter of equipment the other major handicaps are transport and medical aid. Lack of adequate transport is hampering the mobility of the Mukti Bahini, some times with disastrous result. For example, the heavy casualty suffered by the Mukti Bahini at Bherigaon on July 22 was almost entirely due to lack of transport which prevented the two arms of the attacking force to synchronise their attacks. Lack of medical facilities is causing many deaths which otherwise could have been avoided.

There is hardly any first aid available to the Mukti Bahini during operation. There is no stretcher or ambulance and no base hospital. The wounded are carried on the shoulders of their comrades or on improvised stretchers made of ropes and bamboo poles. The nearest hospital would be miles away from the place of operation. And by the time the wounded is carried to the hospital he is dead from blood letting. It goes to the credit of the boys of the Mukti Bahini that even such avoidable deaths have not affected their morale. Friends of Bangla Desh owe it to these brave boys to make better medical facilities available to them. Even a slight improvement in the present situation can save many precious lives. Lack of sufficient coordination between different fighting units is another problem which is affecting the smooth progress of the operation. Due to lack of such coordination efforts of the fighting units are sometimes wasted. Cases have also been reported when safety of fighting units was jeopardised due to lack of coordination between units operating in the same sector. The problem of better coordination is essentially a political problem of unity among different fighting units. In many places the exigencies of the situation have brought all the fighting groups together and forced them to set up joint commands. But unfortunately this is still to be the general pattern everywhere. The newly formed five-party Cabinet Consultative Committee will make a big contribution to early victory if it can enforce a united command in all the sectors.

Guerrilla warfare is essentially a political warfare in which proper political motivation of the fighters and the people is indespensible for victory. Unfortunately this has remained a weak spot of the Bangla Desh struggle till today. The chief motivation of the fighters and the people till today is hatred of the enemy, of the West Pakistani Punjabi army to be more precise. Hatred in a people’s war is sacred. It comes from a deep love for one’s own people and gives one the grit and determination to stick on to the end. But hatred should not be so blind as to lead one to confuse between friends and foes. All Pakistanis and all Punjabis for that matter are not the enemies of Bangla Desh. It is the feudal lords and monopolists of West Pakistan represented by the military junta that the people of Bangla Desh are fighting. It will be a folly to extend the circle of the enemy by including the common people of West Pakistan into it. The anti­ imperialist content of the Bangla Desh struggle is also not properly emphasised by some of its leaders. The government and the army which are now raping Bangla Desh is supported, armed, equipped, sustained and protected by US imperialism. But strangely enough no one has so far heard of a word of condemnation of the US imperialists from a section of the Bangla Desh leaders. On the contrary there is an attempt to sow illusions about the US government in the minds of the people of Bangla Desh.

No liberation war can be fought, let alone won, if the people are not properly educated about the enemy and its allies. Any confusion or blindness about the enemy can only lead the people into the enemy’s trap. The war in Bangla Desh has been fought for six months and now with victory no longer in doubt it is essential that the leaders of the struggle spell out their objectives in some more detail so that people may know what kind of Bangla Desh they shall live in after victory is won.

Two constituents of the liberation struggle, namely the Communist Party of Bangla Desh and the National Awami Party (Muzaffar) have already announced their programmes. But such programmes are yet to come from the Awami League and the Bhashani NAP. Unless such clear programmatic declarations are made by the leading parties of the struggle the basic masses cannot be fully mobilised in the struggle. There is no doubt that the Bangla Desh is a people’s struggle. But active physical participation of the masses of peasants is still inadequate. This deficiency cannot be made up unless the peasantry is roused on a programme which they will consider their own. These are some of the major weaknesses of the struggle which need immediate attention by the leaders. The people of Bangla Desh are now on their way to victory. The sooner these weaknesses are remedied the quicker will be the victory.