New Delhi: In a major statement, defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday that “borders can change” and Sindh may “return to India again”.
Sindh is the region through which the Indus River flows. It went to Pakistan during the 1947 Partition. Hindus from Sindh, who moved to India thereafter, never accepted the separation of this region from India. Veteran BJP leader and former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani was one among them.
“I’d also like to mention that Lal Krishna Advani wrote in one of his books that Sindhi Hindus, especially those of his generation, still haven’t accepted the separation of Sindh from India,” Singh said at an event in New Delhi.
“Not just in Sindh, but throughout India, Hindus consider the Indus River sacred. Many Muslims in Sindh also believed that the water of the Indus was no less sacred than the Aab-e-Zamzam of Mecca. This is Advani ji’s quote,” he added.
“Today, the land of Sindh may not be a part of India, but civilisationally, Sindh will always be a part of Indi
a. And as far as land is concerned, borders can change. Who knows, tomorrow Sindh may return to India again. Our people of Sindh, who hold the Indus River sacred, will always be our own. No matter where they are, they will always be ours,” the defence minister further said.
He noted how Sindhis has to start from scratch after the brutal Partition, but managed to establish new dimensions of success through their hard work and courage. They are now making a significant contribution to India’s economic growth and a wide range of social development efforts.
This is not the first time that Singh has spoken of parts of Pakistan getting merged with India.
While addressing the Indian community in Morocco on September 22 this year, he had pointed to how slogans are being raised in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) for merging back with India. He had expressed confidence that the area, illegally held by Pakistan, will merge with India without the need for any aggression.
“PoK will be ours on its own. Demands have started being made in PoJK, you must have heard sloganeering,” Singh had said during his interaction with the Indian community in Morocco.
“I was addressing the Indian Army at a programme in Kashmir Valley five years ago, I had then said that we will not need to attack and capture PoJK, it is anyway ours; PoJK itself will say, ‘Main bhi Bharat Hoon’. That day will come,” he had said.