Background: Several thousand members of the Indian right-wing Jan Sangh Party demonstrated outside Parliament in New Delhi on Monday (24 May) calling for recognition of the self-proclaimed Government of Bangla Desh in East Pakistan. 250 of the demonstrators were arrested when they broke police cordons in an attempt to get into the Parliament buildings. Inside, in a speech to the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament buildings. Inside, in a speech to the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament), India's Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, called on the Big Powers to use their influence to settle the East Pakistan crisis and the problem of the flood of refugees into India.

The demonstration came a day before a scheduled debate in Parliament on the question of recognition for the self-proclaimed Republic of Bangla Desh. The Leader of the Jan Sangh, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, spoke at the demonstration and in the debate on Tuesday (25 May). He said the Pakistan Army was behaving like a colonial power in East Pakistan, and that Indian government should recognise and actively support the Bangla Desh government.

Following the debate, the Indian Government refused to how to Parliamentary pressure on the question of recognition. The Foreign Minister, Mr. Swaran Singh, said that the government would not hesitate to recognise Bangla Desh, if it felt that it was in the national interest, and also in the interest of the East Pakistanis.