India's stand on Rohingyas gracious so far but housing them would be risky

India has its own problem of poverty and unemployment. The country is yet to accommodate even Hindu refugees, who are legally entitled to, from Pakistan. India cannot afford to shoulder the responsibility of an additional segment of population.

The other day, Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri announced on the social media that the government had decided to house about 1,100 Rohingya migrants currently living in makeshift slums, in flats with amenities. Observers say Minister Puri's statement appears to have been absolutely baseless.

The Rohingya Muslim migrants are a creation of Myanmar. They have fled from the Buddhist-majority country to neighbouring Bangladesh and other countries, including India. About a million Rohingya live in Bangladesh today. There are an estimated 40,000 Rohingyas in India.

India has its own problem of poverty and unemployment. The country is yet to accommodate even Hindu refugees, who are legally entitled to, from Pakistan. They are still languishing in deplorable conditions across the country. India cannot afford to shoulder the responsibility of an additional segment of population (Rohingyas).

In a statement made in Parliament in 2020, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that Rohingyas would never be accepted in India. In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the Union government has submitted that "Rohingyas are not refugees but infiltrators."

Besides, public sentiments across the country are against housing the Rohingya refugees. Our intelligence agencies are believed to have accused them of criminal and even terrorist intent.

The Union Home Ministry has done well to deny any move to house the Rohingya migrants. It rightly views them as "illegal foreigners". It has clarified that the government's plan is just to keep them sequestered in their present homes, designated as detention centres while the government continued efforts to deport them to Myanmar.

The observers say the government is being gracious about handling the Rohingya issue. India is not a party to the 1951 Convention on Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. No international convention is binding on India. Yet India has respected the UN convention on the matter.

It is for the government of Myanmar to provide its citizens homes and rehabilitate them in an atmosphere of peace and development. In tune with its age-old spirit of "vasudhaiva kutumbakam" (well-being of the entire world), New Delhi may, at best, play a crucial role in convincing Myanmar about the need to provide its citizens homes and safety so that they could return back their own country.

New Delhi would do well to be cautious while pleading the Rohingyas case to Naypyidaw. Malaysia and Indonesia are Islamic countries. But they have not been inclined to accept any Rohingya refugees.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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