Pakistan on Monday condemned the “highly irresponsible” remarks of the chief minister of India’s Uttar Pradesh about taking back ‘Sindhu’ (Sindh), stressing such commentary reflects a “revisionist and expansionist” mindset.
On Sunday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had claimed that if India could “take back” the site of the Babri Masjid—which Hindus believe was the birthplace of Lord Ram—after 500 years, then “there is no reason why we cannot take back Sindhu.” He further said the Aoydhya temple would be restored by January, a little over a year after India’s Supreme Court awarded the site to Hindus and gave Muslims an alternate location to build a new mosque.
Responding to media queries over the remarks, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch condemned them, noting Adityanath was a key member of India’s ruling party and a “follower of the bigoted Hindutva ideology.” She said it was “equally condemnable” that the Indian CM was using the so-called reclamation of the Babri Masjid site as a “template for reclaiming the region” that is a part of Pakistan.
“History bears witness that a Hindu supremacist mob had brazenly demolished the historic Babri Mosque on Dec. 6, 1992 to take back the claimed birthplace of Lord Rama in Ayodhya,” she said. “Clearly, the chief minister’s provocative remarks are inspired by the gratuitous assertion of ‘Akhand Bharat’ (undivided India),” she said, stressing they manifest a revisionist and expansionist mindset that seeks to subjugate the identity and culture of not only India’s neighboring countries but also its own religious minorities. “They also reflect a perverse view of history,” she added.
Expressing concern that such ideas were being increasingly peddled by individuals belonging to the BJP-RSS combine to further their divisive and parochial political agenda, she added: “Instead of nurturing hegemonic and expansionist ambitions, the Indian leaders should resolve disputes with neighboring countries, and work with them to build a peaceful and prosperous South Asia.”