Raising the cause of “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India), BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) believes that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will one day reunite again not by war but through “popular goodwill”.
The optimism of Madhav, a former RSS spokesperson, has come in the backdrop of the surprise visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lahore and meeting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on Friday which has been warmly received by the political leaders and political observers across the globe.
The BJP general secretary, who was one of the key negotiators involved in the BJP-PDP Government in J&K, said the coming together of the three countries will happen by way of a peaceful process and popular consent.
“The 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 told Al Jazeera, Doha-based news channel.
The BJP general secretary said, “As an RSS member, I also hold on to that view.”
He clarified, saying, “That does not mean we wage war on any country...We annex any country. Without war, through popular consent, it can happen.”
The programme containing Madhav’s comments was apparently recorded in london before the Prime Minister’s surprise visit to Pakistan on Christmas when he met Sharif and discussed ways of improving ties between the two countries. But the programme was aired on late Friday.
Madhav, an RSS pracharak himself, said, India is “a land where a particular way of life, a particular culture or civilisation, is practiced”.
“We call it Hindu - do you have any objectionIJ India has one culture. We are one culture, one people, one nation,” he told the channel. He said the RSS ideology is for the supremacy of India and the organisation is neither “fascist” nor “aggressive”.
On the controversy over returning of awards by intellectuals over the alleged ‘intolerance’, he said, “A small number of people do not represent the entire country’s views.”