Home Minister Rajnath claims Pakistan ought to revise policies to escape division; accuses Pakistan of making attempts to destabilise India

NEW DELHI: Home Minister of India Rajnath Singh has warned Pakistan in a direct statement of dividing the country if it did not change its policies.While making a false claim, he said that Pakistan was making attempts to destabilise India.

“Pakistan was divided into two parts, if it doesn’t realise soon, it will be divided into 10 parts,” Rajnath said in a fanatical caution to Pakistan on Sunday.

Adding to his baseless claims, he made false allegations against Pakistan of ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC).

The Indian home minister also blamed Pakistan of worsening the ties.

“Though India got divided on the basis of religion in 1947, still our hearts do not accept it as we believe that everybody, whether Hindu or Muslim, born and living in India are brothers,’’ he said.

“However, Pakistan wanted to secede Jammu and Kashmir from India through terror, but it was mistaken that it can get India divided again on the basis of religion,” he added while sending a loud and clear message that there will be no further division of the country on the basis of religion.

Pakistan has invited India numerous times for peace talks but the neighbouring country pays no heed to settling the issues.

The Indian home minister said that the Narendra Modi government will take along everybody on the path of development and progress.

In this context, he said that while countries worldwide are worried about the ISIS, the Islamic State has not been able to find any ground in India. “Being home minister of India, I know the truth and I can say it that ISIS has not been able to get a foothold in India…Its credit goes to the Muslims of India and the followers of Islam,’’ he added.

“People may not be aware that if anyone’s children get radicalised, they approach us for help…If they go outside (country), they inform us,’’ he said, adding that two-three families had even met him with a request to do something about the matter. “We need to understand this sentiment also,’’ he said.

Pointing out that Pakistan cannot understand it, Rajnath said that perhaps it does not know that India is the only place in the world that is home to all the 72 sects mentioned in Islam. He said Pakistan, whose own existence came into being after the 1947 partition of India on the basis of religion, got divided with the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.

He asked Pakistan to stop aiding and abetting terrorism against India, adding that if it did not mend its ways then it may again get divided into “10” parts. However, “India will not be behind the further division of Pakistan as history is witness to the fact that the former never has expansionist intentions and it always believed in universal brotherhood,” the Indian media quoted him as saying.

“We understand the reality that Pakistan is our neighbour and that friends may change in life, but not the neighbours,’’ Singh said. He said former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee repeatedly said it during his tenure, but Pakistan did not understand even his language. He claimed that Pakistan had four wars with India only to get defeated every time. “Even after 1999 Kargil war, Vajpayee extended a hand of friendship towards Pakistan…He even went to Pakistan, but how it reciprocated…repeated ceasefire violations,” Rajnath claimed.

Referring to the presence of all the heads of neighbouring countries on the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government, he said, “We have invited Nawaz Sharif not only for shaking hands but to have unity of hearts.”

“Not only this, breaking all protocols, our prime minister went to Pakistan to attend a family function of Nawaz Sharif,” he pointed out.

“Pakistan should have understood our (good) intentions, but it did not,’’ he regretted, asking “What it wants? What shall we do?”.

“What it has given us in lieu of our broad heartedness?’” he asked and himself gave the reply in the same breath, “They gave us Gurdaspur, they gave us Pathankot and Uri”.

He said if Pakistan is unable to control terror and wants help from India in the matter, then India is ready to cooperate. “But let Pakistan, at least, ask for it,” he said, adding that it was not prepared to do so.

“What shall we do?….How many times we open the doors of our hearts?’’ he asked, adding that “today also, though Pakistan may not have cooperated with us, but we want to live in peace and amity with it. We want peace, but we will not compromise with terrorism at any cost.”