RSS chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday backed the idea of a confederation of the South East Asian countries that would lead to melting of all borders as a lasting solution to the separatist movements and for emergence of a stronger India. “We should start thinking how to be Akhand Bharat once again,” he said.
Stopping short of recommending that the country should have a vision to expand its territories, Bhagwat pointed out that all nations, including China, Russia and America, made no secret of stretching their land by harboring expansionist tendencies in the national interest — and to be stronger nations.
“It is only this country where her own citizens live like refugees away from their homeland,” he said with respect to the Kashmiri Pandits. “Land,” he said, “is an important factor in today’s geo-politics.”
Bhagwat was speaking at the release of Mission Kashmir in Nagpur, a book written in Marathi by Ravindra Dani, New Delhi special correspondent of Sangh mouthpiece Tarun Bharat.
The RSS chief supported the idea articulated earlier in his speech by one of the chief guests, former governor of Jammu & Kashmir Lt General (retd) SK Sinha.
This is not the first time that the Sangh has articulated the Akhand Bharat idea. The previous RSS chief, KS Sudarshan, had made this pitch on several occasions, particularly with regard to the Kashmir imbroglio.
Gen Sinha, who was part of the 431-day war between the two neighbours over Kashmir soon after the partition, vouched for a confederation of SAARC nations with India as its nucleus on the lines of Europe, so that the boundaries become meaningless and peace could reign supreme.
“Ultimately this used to be one land — both by lineage and culture — from Kabul to Tibet to Sri Lanka; so why should we not envision bringing it back as one land,” Bhagwat said. But, he said, Kashmir is not the problem restricted to one region. “Every Indian should be concerned with the problems in Kashmir or the North East,” he said, “since his or her peace and security also are tied up with the situation there.”
