ROHINGYA: The Unwanted Weed in Indian Gardens

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New Delhi : The ethnic minority of Myanmar living predominantly in the western state of Rakhine though not officially recognized by the government as citizens and for decades the nation's Buddhist majority has been accused of subjecting them to discrimination and violence. About 10 percent of the world's stateless people live in Myanmar and Rohingya.

Viewed by the United Nations and the United States as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh flee their countries every year in a desperate attempt to reach mainly Muslim-majority countries, Malaysia and Indonesia. In 2014, the United Nations expressed serious concern over the plight of the Rohingya community. The UN has demanded "equal access to full citizenship for the Rohingya minority" and ensure their equal access to all services. But Myanmar's government has so far refused to grant citizenship to the Rohingya. It views the estimated 1.1 million people as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. 

In 2012, clashes between the Rohingya and Buddhist nationalists led to scores of deaths of Buddhist nationals, who further forcing tens of thousands of Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Some two lac people - mostly Rohingya - have been living in camps in Rakhine since the 2012 clashes.

In October last year, Rohingya militants/ terrorists attacked several security checkpoints and killed scores of police officers. Myanmar's security forces responded by launching counter-terrorism operations against insurgents

On August 25, violence broke out in Rakhine when around 100 armed Muslim insurgents attacked security guards in the border region with Bangladesh. Myanmar's security forces and Muslim minority Rohingya militants accuse each other of burning down villages and staging mass killings. The incidents have led to almost civil war like situation in Myanmar basically erupted out of the fear of Buddhist majority of these Muslim minorities.

ROHINGYA SETTLEMENT IN INDIA

Recently, with voices being raised from various corners of Indian society from across the country as regards expulsion of Rohingyas from India under severe threat of National Security and Terrorist Groups working within the sect , an uproar and  serious debate has started surfacing amongst the intellectual, elite, lutyen class of liberal leftist society in favour of Rohingyas being settled in India,  in the name of solace and compassion . On the other hand the Rightist, nationalist groups demanding expulsion of Rohingyas from India considering the fact that influx of Rohingya refugees in Jammu and Ladakh is a matter of national security, and these Rohingyas are the by-product of "vicious" ethnic conflict and civil war going on in Myanmar. 

Bangladesh Government has reported – that there are at least three terrorist organisations among the Rohingyas. Even Bangladesh taking a hardline against Rohingya refugees, Bangladeshi authorities intercepted, detained and forcibly returned Rohingya civilians fleeing along their border inspite of being a Muslim country. The evidence of Rohingya involvement in the blast in Bodh Gaya and in October, 2016, was very much witnessed when one of the two militants killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir, turned out to be from Myanmar. It is something which is a pressing matter, which goes beyond the humanitarian aspect. Also,  Rohingya refugees have also been flaunting voter cards and Aadhaar cards, which came to light when they started enrolling themselves for government facilities.

In December last year, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report that the group of Rohingya Muslims that attacked Myanmar border guards in October 2016 had Islamist links.

The Harakah al-Yakin (HaY) group, which was formed after communal violence in 2012, claimed responsibility for the October attacks and the Brussels-based ICG said that interviews with members of the group revealed that HaY had ties with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The ICG said that Rohingya who had fought in other countries, as well as some Pakistanis and Afghans, gave clandestine training to Rakhine villagers over two years prior to the October 2016 attacks.

Islamist groups such as the Taliban, "Islamic State" (IS) and al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent have often condemned the violence against Rohingya in Myanmar and called for a jihad against the authorities and the majority Buddhists.

The Rightist groups are correct in arguing that no voice or even a single word has been uttered by same leftist, so called humanitarian Liberals of Lutyen Delhi for One of the greatest human tragedies since partition, a lost community and perhaps at one level a lost generation;The Kashmiri Pandits. Displaced in their own country, ignored by all these intellectual class, designer journos and almost completely expunged from the national discourse. Homeless ; as they have been denied by heartless politicos and Human Right Organisations , a place to settle in the Valley of Kashmir. The community, as a whole, deprived of their mother land , still waiting for Justice to be delivered, Refugees in their own country with long wait of rehabilitaion in their "Madre Vatan" have no voice calling for Kashmiri Pandit Exodus in the name of Solace and Compassion who shout at the top of their voices for militant Rohingyas to get a place in our nation after plundering and killing and raping hundreds of Buddhists of Myanmar. Unacceptable in their own land are finding open voices for them in our nation from amongst the said Liberals.

Human Rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called on New Delhi to reconsider its plan to deport the Rohingya, saying it should abide by its international obligations. But they were appropriately replied that in so far as illegal immigrants are concerned there is a long-standing and established procedure on the basis of Indian law which we will continue to follow, there is absolutely no change and Despite being home to thousands of refugees, India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. This has clearly set the priorities of the Government of India which has recently declared that soon GOI will identify Rohingyas inhabiting here and shall deport them to Myanmar.

Disclaimer: The article has been written by Pragya Bhushan, Advocate , Supreme Court. All thoughts belong to her and News Heads has nothing to do with it.