Dr. Ved Pratap Vaidik

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat has raised such an imperative issue which nobody dared to mention these days. While addressing a gathering in Haridwar during a Prana Pratishtha ceremony on Thursday the Sarsanghchalak talked about realising ‘Akhand Bharat’. Neither political leaders nor the governments in power have the nerve to talk about ‘Akhand Bharat’. In his address Mohanji expressed confidence that the long cherished dream of a united India could be materialised in the next 15 years.

Nothing more blissful, if that happens.  For the past 75 years ‘Akhand Bharat’ has been remaining just a dream.  Can we expect this task to be realised in the next 15 years, with the support of the governments and political leaders? First of all, the political leaders need to accept and appreciate the significance of this issue. Secondly, they should have will power to concretise the idea and make it happen. In my humble opinion, nongovernmental organisations with an inclusive outlook can do this job better than any government in power.

During 1945-50, Guruji Golwalkar, the second Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, had raised the slogan of ‘Akhand Bharat’ and socialist leader Dr Ram Manohar Lohia said aloud Indo-Pak Eka. Both the slogans were suitable to that time but today the ambit of both these slogans needs to be expanded. Both these slogans were relating to the then British India. But 50-55 years ago when I had the opportunity to visit and live in 15-20 neighbouring countries, I felt that we need to ponder the concept of ‘Aryavarta’ that Maharishi Dayanand postulated.

The boundaries of this Aryavarta should be from Arakan (Myanmar) to Khorasan (Iran) and from Trivishtup (Tibet) to Maldives. If you add the five republics of Central Asia and Mauritius, then it can become a massive organization of 16 countries. Later, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates can also be added. This is double the number of SAARC, which has just eight member countries. This organization of 16 countries is named People’s SAARC.

The SAARC is a regional intergovernmental organization. It has been inactive for the last 7-8 years. People’s SAARC will connect the people and governments of these 16 member countries. It is my vision to unite these countries to make it a stronger, prosperous and cohesive organization than the European Union. We have more undiscovered treasures in these nations, compared to the Europe.

These countries are so rich in natural wealth like crude oil, natural gas, uranium, gold, silver, iron, copper and many more, that in the next five years the people of South and Central Asia (Aryavarta) will overtake the Europeans in fiscal wealth and these countries could provide jobs for many millions.

These 16 nations may differ in their religion, language, costumes and food habits, but culturally they are descendants of the same ancestors and belong to identical heritage, for, they have been an integral part of the vast Aryavarta for thousands of years.

*Dr.Vaidik is making serious efforts to form ‘Jan-SAARC’. He is in regular touch with leaders and important personalities from all the 16 countries.

*Dr. Vaidik is a widely travelled scholar-journalist. He has visited more than 80 countries on diplomatic and educationalmissions. Dr. Vaidik has won more than a dozen National and International awards for academic and journalistic excellence. He has been a member of several Advisory Committees of Government of India.