India shoots itself in the foot over Rohingyas

Especially after the conciliatory televised address of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday in which she offered return to all Rohingyas from the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh after a verification process, India appears to have shot itself in the foot by regarding the 40,000 Rohingyas sheltering in India from the Myanmar violence as a serious threat to its national security, and the Indian government telling the Supreme Court on Monday that these displaced persons from Myanmar were illegal immigrants and would be expelled.  

The Indian stand was made quite clear when Prime Minister Narendra Modi practically used the same language as the Burmese military, which still controls the levers of power although Daw Aung San is the country’s unofficial leader, in calling the suffering Rohingya, facing extreme violence at the hands of the Myanmar army, as potential terrorists, although not in so many words.

Probably Mr Modi thought he would curry favour with the Myanmar Army brass in order to check Chinese footprint in the country and enhance India’s. But from the start it was clear that this was not a well thought-out gamble as Beijing too, in subsequent days, came out taking the same broad position against terrorism in Myanmar, in order to be on the right side of the authorities in that country.

When the UN high commissioner for human rights recently called the Rohingya exodus a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing” and criticised India’s decision to deport Rohingyas, New Delhi hit back in bilious and unbecoming language even as the case of this Myanmar minority was making headlines around the globe and personal condemnation of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, was rising for staying mum. Since then the famous Burmese leader has “condemned” all human rights violations, spoken out against hate and fear as the world’s “scourges”, and underlined the rights of all to their “diverse identities” in the context of the ongoing Rohingya crisis. New Delhi suddenly looks out of depth.

In light of the existence of the extremist Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which is thought to have links with Al Qaeda and Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, New Delhi could have taken steps to screen the Rohingya, isolating undesirable elements. Instead, the entire Rohingya community in India was declared a national security threat. Is there a communal angle to this since the refugees from Myanmar are Muslim? Would a non-Muslim displaced group have been treated in an equivalent manner? As matters stand, however, not a single FIR has been filed against the Rohingya refugees residing in Jammu, Haryana, Delhi and Hyderabad for any crime, leave alone terrorism. So, what’s the basis of the Indian policy? We should be aware of losing our soft power in the world when we abandon the moral compass.