“I do not want to say that the refugee problem is a small one-9,000,000 people can never be small, no matter where they are-and certainly to have 9,000,000 extra people at a time when you can ill afford to look after your own people is not an easy task. But the problem of Bangla Desh is not merely the problem of the refugees in India. It is a far deeper problem and one which affects us in many ways. The refugees have highlighted the problem for us in India because they have posed not only a tremendous economic burden, they have created social problems, political problems and, above all, the question of the security, the stability and the integrity of India. We are equally concerned with the tragedy which is taking place outside of our country. Rarely has the world witnessed the sort of atrocities and barbarities which we hear described by the refugees who are daily pouring in.
People have asked me how long can India manage? Actually that date has long since been passed. I feel that I am sitting on the top of a volcano and I honestly do not know when it is going to erupt. So the question is not of how restrained we are today, but of what will happen across the border. We think this is the responsibility of the international community to see that a way out is found. Obviously, the best way, the most humane way, is to have a political settlement and that political settlement can only be with the elected leader of the people of Bangla Desh, and with the elected and accepted representatives of that country.”
