Digvijay may be chanting "Rohingya, Rohingya" during yatra: Sambit Patra

Bhopal, Oct 5: BJP leader Sambit Patra took a dig at Digvijay Singh over his stand against the proposed deportation of Rohingya Muslims, saying the Congress general secretary on 'Narmada Parikrama' could be chanting "Rohingya, Rohingya" instead of "Narmade, Narmade".

"Digvijay Singh is taking dips in the Narmada nowadays, but with chants of 'Rohingya, Rohingya' instead of 'Narmade, Narmade'," Patra said, also a BJP spokesman, said delivering a lecture on 'National security and humanity' here.

People like Digvijay Singh were shouting from the rooftops that Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar should be given shelter in the country, Patra said. Singh had recently questioned the government's move to deport Rohingya Muslims. He had told reporters in Raipur that the Indian government was helping Bangladesh rehabilitate Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar following a military crackdown, but at the same time it was not ready to give shelter to them in India.

Singh (70), a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, and his wife Amrita embarked on 3,300 km 'Narmada Parikrama', a walk along the banks of the holy river, from Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh on September 30.

Patra said that 40,000 Rohingya Muslims were living in the country illegally. "These are not refugees," the BJP spokesperson said. They were different from 14,000 Rohingya refugees who are living in India after acquiring documents from the United Nations, he said. "We want that these intruders (those living illegally) should be repatriated immediately," Patra said.

There is no law for refugees in the country and India is neither a signatory to the 1951 refugees accord nor the 1967 protocol of the UN, he said. Rohingyas have a history of links to terrorism, Patra claimed.

PTI