ISLAMABAD: The Fore­ign Office on Saturday hit back at RSS chief Mohan Bha­gwat’s provocative rem­arks about partition, asking the extremist Hindu group to accept “established realities” and learn to peacefully co-exist with Pakistan.

“Those belonging to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Par­ty) and its ideological fountainhead RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) would be well-advised to refrain from making such provocative and irresponsible statements, accept the establis­h­ed realities, and learn to follow the imperatives of pea­­ceful coexistence,” said FO Spokesman Asim Iftikhar.

He was responding to Bha­g­wat’s remarks at the lau­nch of a book about the par­tition of subcontinent in Noida, India, on Friday. “The solution to the pain of partition is in undoing it,” Bhagwat had said.

“This is India of 2021 and not of 1947. Partition has happened once, it won’t happen again. Those who think that way will face partition themselves,” he had further said.

Iftikhar said Bhagwat’s remarks were “highly provocative and irresponsible”. He said the RSS chief had “publicly indulged in such delusional thinking and historical revisionism” in the past as well.

RSS was staunchly opposed to the partition of subcontinent and had mobilised Hindus against it at that time.

The FO spokesman said that Pakistan had repeatedly highlighted the threat posed to regional peace and stability by the toxic mix of the extremist ‘Hindutva’ ideology (Hindu Rashtra) and expansionist foreign policy (Akhand Bharat) being pursued by the ruling RSS-BJP dispensation in India.

“In the internal context, this dangerous mindset aims to completely marginalise and dispossess the minorities in India. In the external dimension, it poses an existential threat to all of India’s neighbours in South Asia.”

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2021