Try creating ‘Akhand Bharat’, Himanta Biswa Sarma tells Rahul Gandhi; Bhupesh Baghel takes RSS dig at him

GUWAHATI: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday asked Rahul Gandhi to try integrating Pakistan and Bangladesh with India to create “Akhand Bharat”, an idea endorsed by RSS, instead of the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra — a 3,500-km unification march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
His attack coincided with Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India. Sarma called the yatra led by Rahul as “comedy of the century”. He asked: “Isn’t this comedy? You (Congress) divided the country in 1947 and now you want Bharat jodo and you are trying to do this where the country is united. Rahul should go to Pakistan for ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ if they want unification.”
He said India was united from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Silchar to Saurashtra and it was Congress “who partitioned the country into India and Pakistan and then Bangladesh was created”. Sarma’s “Akhand Bharat” comment drew sharp criticism from Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, who taunted his Assam counterpart, saying he must have gone to the RSS office and seen the map of “Akhand Bharat” in which Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are all part of India. Baghel said: “Sarma is spitting venom every day. Naye naye mullah hain. Naya mullah zyada pyaz khata hai (he is over-eager to prove himself). He was with Congress earlier and is now in BJP.
(Inputs from Raipur)