Pakistan condemns RSS chief’s ‘delusional’ remarks

Dangerous mindset aims to completely marginalise, dispossess minorities in India, says FO

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned the highly provocative and irresponsible remarks made by Mohan Bhagwat, chief of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), calling for “undoing” of Partition.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the RSS issued a statement on Thursday quoting Bhagwat as saying that the India of 2021 was not the same as the one in 1947 while speaking at a book launch event.

"Partition has happened once, it won't happen again. Those who think that way will face partition themselves," he said.

The RSS chief said if India wanted to contribute to the world, it would need to become "capable", adding, "the only solution to the pain of Partition lies in undoing it."

In a statement, the Foreign Office said that it was not the first time that the RSS chief had publicly indulged in such delusional thinking and historical revisionism.

“Pakistan has repeatedly highlighted the threat posed to regional peace and stability by the toxic mix of the extremist ‘Hindutva’ ideology [Hindu Rashtra] and expansionist foreign policy [Akhand Bharat] being pursued by the ruling RSS-BJP dispensation in India,” the Foreign Office statement said.

Read India establishing new agency in IIOJK to ‘terrorise Kashmiris’

“In the internal context, this dangerous mindset aims to completely marginalise and dispossess the minorities in India. In the external dimension, it poses an existential threat to all of India’s neighbours in South Asia.”

The statement said that the world was witness to the systematic usurpation of the rights of minorities, especially Muslims, in India and the unabated repression of Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“Pakistan has consistently opposed India’s hegemonic impulses and demonstrated a firm resolve to thwart any aggressive designs. While committed to peace, the people and armed forces of Pakistan are fully capable of defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country,” it added.

“Those belonging to the BJP and its ideological fountainhead RSS would be well-advised to refrain from making such provocative and irresponsible statements, accept the established realities, and learn to follow the imperatives of peaceful coexistence,” the statement concluded.