Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday accused Pakistan of “conspiring” to divide India on religious lines but said it will not succeed.
“Pakistan is conspiring to divide India on religious lines but it will not succeed. 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.
Singh said nowhere in the world other than India 72 sects of Islam live together peacefully.
He said that as the home minister of the country, he wanted to make it clear that India is committed to taking along everybody and moving ahead on the path of development.
He also offered India’s cooperation to Pakistan to eradicate the menace of terrorism from its soil.
“If Pakistan is serious about eradicating terrorism but is incapable of doing that and wants cooperation, we are ready to help it eradicate terrorism from there,” the minister said.
He 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.”
After repeated defeats, Pakistan has understood that it cannot defeat India in wars so it has resorted to sponsoring proxy war, he said, adding that “terrorism is the weapon of
weak and not the brave”.
Singh said that while the entire world was concerned about the spread of Islamic State, the terrorist organisation has failed to spread its roots in India.
Singh credited the Muslims of India for thwarting the designs of Islamic State to spread its tentacles in the country.
“When the entire world is worried about IS, I can say it as the home minister of the country as I know the reality that 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.
He said that the people might not be aware that if a member of somebody’s family gets radicalised, the family comes to him and appeals to save their child from the clutches of IS.
“Pakistan will never understand this India. Pakistan came into existence after India got divided on religious lines but still it could not keep the entire Pakistan united.
“In 1971, the same Pakistan got further divided into two pieces and I feel if Pakistan does not mend its ways, it would further get divided into 10 pieces and India will have no role in that division of Pakistan. We will not do it,” Singh said.
He said that Indian ideology has never been that of an expansionist and history is witness to the fact that India has never attacked any country for expanding its boundaries.
“We do not want to conquer any other country, we do not want to harass any other country. India is a country of saints and sages who advocated that the whole world is one family. We not only consider the people living within the boundaries of India as our family members but the people living on this planet are part of our family,” he said.
The minister said India always wanted friendly relations with Pakistan and that was why soon after the Kargil war ended, the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extended a hand of friendship toward Pakistan.
“Not only this, he went to Pakistan but what has Pakistan given in return, repeated ceasefire violations,” he said.
He said that “during the visit of the officers of Pakistan Rangers to India I told them that the Border Security Force or Indian soldiers will not fire the first bullet on any civilian of Pakistan because at some point in time it was part of our family”.
“We still do not consider them separate, they are still our brothers and we do not want to fire a bullet on any brother or any human being but keep it in mind that if you fire the first bullet on the soldiers of India then we will tell our soldiers not to keep count of the bullets they fire,” Singh said.
Image: Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the Martyrs’ Day function in Kathua district. Photograph: PTI Photo
