Pakistan, India and Bangladesh will reunite to form 'Akhand Bharat', says BJP official

Ram Madhav says countries will not come together through war but through 'popular goodwill'

An official from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Saturday that after 60 years of separation, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh would one day be united again through “popular goodwill”.

BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhavan said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the three countries would reunite to form “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India).

"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) still believes that one day these parts, which have for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and Akhand Bharat will be created," he said, referring to the ultra-rightist Hindu group in India that has had a history of religious extremism against non-Hindus in the country.



"As an RSS member, I also hold on to that view," he said, but has clarified that this would not be possible through war.

"That does not mean we wage war on any country, (or that) we annex any country. Without war, through popular consent, it can happen.”

Since its victory in the 2014 elections, BJP has been criticised for letting the environment of intolerance grow in India, following various incidents of mob-lynching over beef eating and disruption of public gatherings by Shiv Sena’s fundamentalists.



Earlier this year, Madhav made a statement that India was a Hindu country, stating, "It's a land where a particular way of life, a particular culture or civilisation, is practised."

"We call it Hindu -- do you have any objection? India has one culture. We are one culture, one people, one nation," he said in TV show.

The article originally appeared in Al Jazeera