ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned “highly provocative and irresponsible” remarks made by Mohan Bhagwat, chief of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), calling for “undoing” of the partition.
In a statement, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Asim Iftikhar asserted that this was not the first time that the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has 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 and expansionist foreign policy being pursued by the ruling RSS-BJP dispensation in India,” said the statement.
The spokesperson pointed out that in internal context, this dangerous mindset aims to completely marginalize and dispossess the minorities in India, while in external dimension, it poses an existential threat to all of India’s neighbours.
“The world is witness to the systematic usurpation of the rights of minorities, especially Muslims, in India and the unabated repression of Kashmiris in IIOJK,” it stated, adding the reckless misadventures of India, including in February 2019 that seriously imperiled regional peace and stability are also in front of the world.
The spokesperson also said 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.
