‘India, Pak & Bangladesh will reunite to form Akhand Bharat’

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav has said that parts of India — including Pakistan and Bangladesh — which were separated 60 years ago, will reunite to form “Akhand Bharat” (undivided India).

In an interview to an international news network, he said: “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 also added that as an RSS member, he also holds that view.

He, however, 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 day when he met Sharif and discussed ways of improving ties between the two countries.

Madhav, an RSS pracharak himself, said, India is “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.

Madhav 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 writers and intellectuals, he said, a small number of people do not represent the entire country’s views and there were a very large number of intellectuals who did not support this award.

Madhav said they were doing it “to defame the government and in turn to defame the image of India” and termed as “wrong” their method of protest.

Madhav, an RSS leader, was deputed to the BJP after the general elections last year. He played an important role in Jammu and Kashmir elections and formation of a BJP-PDP coalition government in the state.

Speaking about bringing peace in the region, he said: “The only outstanding issue with regard to the Kashmir problem is the Kashmir under Pakistan occupation. That Kashmir is an integral part of India, has been proved time and again that it’s an integral part of India.”