'Before stopping strikes, India should have taken PoK; Govt missed opportunity to realise Savarkar dream': UBT Sena

The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) said Tuesday, May 13, that had the military action against Pakistan continued for four more days, the Indian armed forces would have seized Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Karachi and Lahore.

In their editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the party said the Modi government at the Centre wasted an opportunity to realise Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar's dream of 'Akhand Bharat' by agreeing to cease military action against Pakistan.

According to PTI, the editorial said that before stopping the military action, India should have at least taken back PoK and separate Balochistan from Pakistan.

Savarkar dreamt of an undivided India extending from PoK to Rameswaram and the Indus to Assam, but “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government missed the opportunity to realize Savarkar's dream of Akhand Bharat,” the editorial said.

It said that the prime minister has no longer have any right to “do politics in Savarkar's name”. It said PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena are all proponents of Akhand Bharat but when the time came to make the dream true, they balked.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on Saturday to halt all military actions—by land, air, and sea—following four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

The decision by India and Pakistan was first made public by US President Donald Trump in a surprise announcement in a social media post while claiming that the talks between the two sides were “mediated” by the United States. Sena (UBT) MP and Saamana's executive editor Sanjay Raut told reporters on Tuesday that PM Modi, who addressed the nation on Monday evening, did not sound like the leader of a victorious side.

In a swipe at PM Modi and Amit Shah, Sanjay Raut said they can only break political parties and not Pakistan.

(With agency inputs)