 "RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat")
India should find a way to get back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the part of the state under Chinese occupation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday, according to a Times of India report.
Bhagwat's remarks come in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reference to the troubled Pakistani province of Balochistan and PoK in his Independence Day speech.
On August 15, in his speech, the prime minister came out openly in support of "freedom" for Balochistan and PoK. Pakistan reacted sharply to these remarks.
"I want to speak a bit about the people in Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," the prime minister said.
"The world is watching. People of Balochistan, Gilgit and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have thanked me a lot in the past few days," Modi said, adding, "I am grateful to them."
According to the report, while addressing a group of young married couples at Agra College, Bhagwat said that he hoped that the government would get back parts of Kashmir under occupation. While admitting that the issue was complicated, Bhagwat pointed out that the Parliament had passed unanimous resolutions proclaiming that PoK was an integral part of India twice and said that the current government would find a solution to the problem.
Bhagwat also seemed to agree with Modi's aforementioned remarks.
Further, the report said that Bhagwat claimed that separatists in Kashmir have lost the ideological support of the masses. "Its only the terror of the terrorists that prevails in the valley which the governments in the state and the Centre have to fight it effectively," Bhagwat said.
Terming it as a "national problem", he called upon the people of the country to put up a united front in tackling the issue.
The RSS supremo also blamed the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance-led government at the Centre for the current situation in Kashmir. According to the report, Bhagwat said that had the governments which came after followed then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Kashmir policy, the issue would have been resolved by now. He also blamed the situation in the Valley on bad governance, lack of employment opportunities and lagging development.
Stating that people of Kashmir knew well enough about what was happening in Pakistan and would not want to align with it, he said that it was up to the government to ensure that Kashmiris wished to remain in India. His prescription for creating such an atmosphere was proper governance and using development as a slave to heal the alienation among the people of the state.
Bhagwat's remarks come at a time when the Valley continues to simmer, with tensions having erupted after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an operation conducted by security forces in early July this year.
