Rohingyas cannot be the victims of Islamophobia: CPI (M)

The government has to use diplomatic channels to urge the Myanmar government to end the violence in Rakhine state and to initiate a political solution, Prakash Karat said.

New Delhi, Sep 21: Questioning government's stand that the Rohingyas were a security threat, the CPI(M) on Thursday said there have been no complaints about them being involved in any terror or criminal activity in the country.

Terming as "unconscionable" the government's decision to deport them, former CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said that "the actual reality contradicts the government's exaggerated and motivated claim that they are a security risk."

Writing in the party mouthpiece 'People's Democracy', he said that around 40,000 Rohingyas have been living in India over the years and they have lived in "squalid conditions" in makeshift colonies and camps in Delhi, Faridabad, Jaipur, Jammu and other places.

"According to police records of these areas, there are no complaints of any terrorist activity or serious crimes involving the people living in these camps," Karat said in the editorial the 'People's Democracy'.

"The official attitude to these hapless people is determined by their religion which is Muslim," Karat said, adding that the Rohingyas "cannot be the victims of Islamophobia."

Alleging that the Modi government has made it clear that only "illegal migrants" who are Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists will be allowed to live in India, he said, "In fact, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill proposes to give them citizenship but not Muslim migrants".

The CPI(M) leader said, "It is regrettable that Prime Minister Modi did not utilise his Myanmar visit recently to take up the Rohingya issue as a humanitarian crisis. Instead, he echoed the stand of the Burmese government that it is an internal security issue."

He said the government, "having belatedly realised the enormity" of the refugee crisis, "must reshape its stand. The government has to use diplomatic channels to urge the Myanmar government to end the violence in Rakhine state and to initiate a political solution."

The government has to use diplomatic channels to urge the Myanmar government to end the violence in Rakhine state and to initiate a political solution, Karat added.

PTI