He does not speak anything without basis or reason and rhyme. Hence Home Minister Amit Shah's certain remarks -- said in apparent lighter vein - appear loaded enough.
Addressing an event organised by 'Dainik Jagran', a leading Hindi newspaper, Shah said "some" state governments have started providing shelter to infiltrators since they have started seeing it as a vote bank.
"I want to tell all political parties: Don't link the issue of infiltration, demographics, and SIR to politics. A time will come when even you won't be spared. This isn't a political issue; it's a national issue," the Home Minister said ... what is largely seen as targeting the Mamata Banerjee-led regime in West Bengal.
The Home Minister said, "Recently I met one 18-year old youth from Haryana... he told me you (as the central Govt) tell everyone Hindu, Muslim, Christians can come and enter India ....I told him how this could be done".
"The boy said ... why not they can come with the land...
"Woh bhoomi (land) leke ayen.... humey koi apatti nahi hae...," said the Home Minister quoting the boy adding (albeit in a lighter vein) - "He has suggested very simple roadmap".
"Anyway do not link these remarks to me," Shah clarified.
"I offered the youth some snacks and tea...meiney kaha desh aisey nahi chalta hae".
Shah said -- " I also know this is not possible" and then humorously added in Hindi
-- "Jab Hoga, tab Hoga
"When it has to happen; it will happen".
(Not surprisingly, Shah's remarks were greeted with applause by a section of the gathering.)
Shah's remarks have certain significance and relevance too. This was perhaps not stated just in air.
The call for friendship and cooperation among India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, leading to a three-nation confederation, is embedded within the history of the Sangparivar rhetoric. L K Advani's onetime associate Sudheendra Kulkarni, who also served as a close aide to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, not long ago said the confederation should be achieved before 2047, which marks the centenary of the end of the colonial rule in the subcontinent.
Kulkarni also claimed in 2017 that BJP patriarch Advani had publicly endorsed the confederation idea on many occasions.
This idea is not new and was rooted in the older "Akhand Bharat" (Greater India) concept of Bharatiya Jan Sangh. However, Advani and his party largely have abandoned the "Akhand Bharat" concept in favor of acknowledging the reality of Partition. That was pragmatism.
While the idea of such a confederation has a long history within certain political circles, it is not part of the BJP's official agenda.
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"Partition of sub-continent had not solved any problem" |
During a 2005 visit to Pakistan, Advani acknowledged the reality of partition and even referred to Muhammad Ali Jinnah as "secular," a remark that drew sharp criticism from within his own party and the RSS.
In fact, it is noteworthy that in February 2004, Advani, then Deputy PM under Vajpayee, had said --
''A time will come when people in both countries will agree that partition of the sub-continent had not solved any of their problems and both will form a confederation".
How a map in new Parliament in 2023 made India's neighbors angry and nervous ?
The mural depicted a map of an ancient Indian civilization encompassing what is today Pakistan in the north and Bangladesh and Nepal in the east.
Speaking to reporters the then spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, had said it portrays the ancient Ashoka Empire and symbolized “the idea of responsible and people-oriented governance that (King Ashoka) adopted and propagated.”
But there was mystique touch of politics too.
“The resolve is clear. Akhand Bharat,” tweeted Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi alongside a photograph of the map.
“Akhand Bharat in (the) New Parliament. It represents our powerful and self reliant India,” said BJP lawmaker Manoj Kotak.
Predictably, Islamabad was aggrieved. Pakistan said it was “appalled by the statements” by the Indian leaders.
“The gratuitous assertion of ‘Akhand Bharat’ is a manifestation of a revisionist and expansionist mindset that seeks to subjugate the identity and culture of not only India’s neighboring countries but also its own religious minorities,” said then Pakistani foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.
ends
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