Talks currently under way in Dacca between Pakistan's President, Yahya Khan, and Sheik Mujibur Rahman, leader of East Pakistan's Awami League, which commands a majority in the new National Assembly, will decide the fate of Pakistan. They could also have a profound influence on the future of neighboring India.

If the talks break down, as they threaten to do, President Yahya will be faced with a terrible choice: either to attempt to reimpose martial rule over 73 million rebellious Bengalis in the eastern state, a task that is certain to be bloody and perhaps would be impossible, or to accept the dissolution of Pakistan. Already there is strong local pressure on Sheik Mujib to declare the independence of “Bangla Desh”—the Bengali homeland.

The wiser course, though still not without agonizing difficulties, would be for the President and West Pakistani leader Zulfikar All Bhutto to accede in principle to the sheik's longstanding demand for a large measure of regional autonomy. A weakened Pakistani federation at this stage in history would be better than a Bengali breakaway that could set off additional secessionist moves in the rest of Pakistan and in India that would throw the entire subcontinent into chaos.

Sheik Mujib, in turn, could well temper his excessive demands for local control over such essential central Government prerogatives as trade and foreign aid. It makes no sense for the Bengalis to impose such crippling limitations on a government in which they can hope to play a dominant role under a new democratic constitution.

Compromise offers the best hope for Pakistanis, East and West. A Pakistani reconciliation also is in the best interests of India, which has just strengthened, but not assured, its own national unity through Mrs. Gandhi's electoral triumph. In this connection, it is unpardonably short‐sighted for New Delhi to continue to hamper communications between East and West Pakistan by maintaining its ban, on Pakistani air traffic over Indian territory.