"Karachi will be part of India one day": Devendra Fadnavis amid shop row

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

Nagpur, Nov 23, 2020:    Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has said that Pakistan’s Karachi will be a part of India one day.

 

His remark came while he was commenting on a controversy that erupted after a Shiv Sena leader allegedly asking "Karachi Sweets" shop owner in Mumbai’s Bandra West to omit the word "Karachi" from the name.

"We believe in ’’Akhand Bharat’’. We also believe that Karachi will be a part of India one day," Mr Fadnavis told reporters on Saturday.

A video of Shiv Sena leader Nitin Nandgaokar went viral last week, where he was seen allegedly asking Karachi Sweets shop owner to change the name "Karachi".

"You have to do it, we’re giving you time. Change ’’Karachi’’ to something in Marathi," said Mr Nandgaokar in the video.

Later, senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that the demand for changing names of Karachi bakery and Karachi sweets is not his party’s official stance.

"Karachi bakery and Karachi sweets have been in Mumbai since last 60 years. They have nothing to do with Pakistan. It makes no sense to ask for changing their names now. Demand for changing their name is not Shiv Sena’s official stance," Mr Raut tweeted days ago.

On Sunday, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik said that his party Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will welcome the move if BJP creates one country by merging India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"The way Devendra ji has said that time will come Karachi will be the part of India. We have been saying that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should be merged. If the Berlin wall can be demolished then why not India, Pakistan and Bangladesh can come together? If BJP wishes to merge these three countries and make a single country, we will welcome it definitely," Mr Malik told ANI, when asked to comment on Mr Fadnavis’s remark on Karachi.