Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday accused Pakistan of “conspiring” to divide India along religious lines and warned the neighbouring country that it would be “splintered” into 10 nations if it failed to quell terrorism.
“We were divided in 1947 on religious basis. We have not been able to forget that... All Indians are brothers, whether they are born from the womb of a Hindu mother or a Muslim mother,” he said addressing a Martyrs’ Day function in Kathua district.
“Pakistan came into existence after India got divided on religious lines but it could not keep itself united. In 1971, it got split into two and, if it does not mend its ways, it will get splintered into 10 pieces and India will have no role in it,” he said.
Accusing Pakistan of waging a proxy war against India, Mr Singh said, “We want to live in peace with Pakistan but it has indulged in sponsoring a proxy war against India. Every Prime Minister of India wanted to mend relations with Pakistan but it did not understand the language of peace and attacked India four times. But our brave soldiers gave them a befitting reply.”
Credit for Muslims
The Home Minister went on to say that Pakistan was waging the proxy war through terrorism, which is a weapon of the weak.
Mr. Singh said while the the whole world was worried about the activities of the terror group Islamic State (IS), it had failed to spread its roots in India because Muslims had rejected it.
“When the entire world is worried about IS, I can say it as the Home Minister IS has not been able to spread its roots in India and the credit for this goes to the Muslims of the country, the followers of Islam,” he said.
Mr. Singh said India always wanted to have friendly relations with all its neighbours but Pakistan betrayed India and returned peace initiatives with terrorist attacks. “Narendra Modi, before the formation of his government, had held a party meeting and we decided if we want to make India a powerful country we need cooperation of all the neighbouring countries. So we decided to invite all the neighbouring heads of state/government and we invited Nawaz Sharif also, and he had come,” Mr. Singh said.
“Sharif was invited not just to shake hands but let the hearts of the two countries to meet,” he said, adding Pakistan should understand “our intentions but it has failed to do so.”
Sri Lanka. All should progress. We want this. But what has Pakistan given us in return for our large-heartedness?
“We got Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Uri where terrorists entered and launched cowardly attacks on our soldiers,” Singh said.
Rahul reacts
Reacting to Mr. Singh’s statement, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter that the Home Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been doing the same [dividing India on religious lines]. “Yes, Rajnath Singhji, Pakistan is trying to divide India along religious lines; has it struck you that you & your boss have been doing the same?” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
