Why does the Indian government, which is soft towards refugees, consider Rohingya as infiltrators?
Today we will know the history of Rohingya Muslims, who are these Rohingyas and what is their existence, why is there so much uproar against them in India?
Let’s take a look at the history of Rohingya.
Who are Rohingya Muslims?
Actually, Rohingya Muslims are a community of Muslims who have been living in Myanmar for many centuries. There is a province named Rakhine and the majority population of this province is Rohingya. Rohingya Muslims say that they are descendants of Muslim traders.
These people have been living in Rakhine since about the ninth century. When Myanmar got independence in 1948, Rohingya Muslims applied for identity cards and after this they also got some rights of citizens in the newly independent country.
Myanmar does not accept Rohingya as its own, why?
If we talk about Myanmar not accepting Rohingya, then the reason is that Myanmar mostly calls Rohingya as Bangladeshi infiltrators. He says that Rohingya are actually a community of Bangladeshi farmers who settled in Myanmar (then Burma) during the British rule. At that time Myanmar was also ruled by the British. They sent a large number of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar for labor etc. The majority of Myanmar’s population is Buddhist and this Buddhist population is not composed of Rohingya Muslims. Even the government and the army are with the majority. On the other hand, Bangladesh says that Rohingyas do not belong to it, but to Myanmar.
Because of this, Rohingya Muslims became a community which has no country of its own.
When did the condition of Rohingya Muslims start deteriorating?
After all, when and how the condition of Rohingya Muslims started deteriorating, it was the year 1962 when a military coup took place in Myanmar. After that a very fundamentalist atmosphere started developing there. Rohingya Muslims were stripped of their civil rights on the pretext that they were foreigners and were given foreign identity cards.
After this, in 1982, the government of that time said that if Rohingya want, they can apply for citizenship. But they must know at least one official language of Myanmar and must have solid proof that their family was living in Myanmar before independence.
But the situation was that most of the Rohingya Muslims did not have documents to prove all this. The situation never arose to get it built. That is why despite living in Myanmar, he was not considered to be from Myanmar.
At present, most of the Rohingyas are living in Bangladesh and Myanmar’s border meets Bangladesh. Amnesty International says that there are approximately five lakh Rohingyas who are living in Bangladesh without papers.
What is the matter of genocide?
In 2017, there was news and discussion about Rohingya Muslims in the media around the world. Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims were killed in Myanmar. Their villages were burnt to the ground. the army was killing them selectively.
To escape this massacre, thousands of Rohingya Muslims started fleeing to save their lives from Myanmar through neighboring Bangladesh. UN, Amnesty International, Red Cross all criticized the Myanmar government for this massacre.
After this, some evidence came to light which showed how Myanmar’s government, army and majority Buddhist population united and massacred the minority Rohingya Muslims. Such cases came to light that the army set fire to the villages of Rohingyas. Then when people ran out of their homes, they were surrounded And shot, and even many mass graves were found. The situation for Rohingya Muslims went from bad to worse.
When did the atrocities on Rohingya Muslims begin?
If we talk about the beginning of atrocities on Rohingya Muslims, then the majority population of Myanmar has been oppressing Rohingya Muslims for almost the last four decades. After 2010, this oppression started increasing significantly. And this is a very strange thing because in 2011, the civilian government replaced the military in Myanmar.
After that everyone started feeling that perhaps the situation would improve but it did not happen. Rohingya Muslims did not have the same rights as the Buddhist population and most of the Rohingya living in Rakhine lived in very poor conditions. To escape from all these difficult conditions, many Rohingya fled Myanmar from such conditions.
Entry of Rohingya Muslims into India
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims started entering India, in this regard the Indian Home Ministry had said that about 40 thousand Rohingyas are living in India and these people have entered India through Bangladesh.
That is why India does not consider them refugees but completely illegal infiltrators and this is why the central government decided to deport them back to Myanmar. India has always been soft on refugees. But the government has always adopted a strict attitude in the case of Rohingya.
Approximately how many Rohingyas live in India
The government has often answered this question in the Lok Sabha on many occasions. In August 2021, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had said in the Lok Sabha that illegal immigrants enter the country illegally and secretly without valid documents. Because of this, there is no accurate data available on the number of illegal Rohingya Muslims living illegally in the country.
UN’s displeasure with India on Rohingya issue
The United Nations’ displeasure over India’s decision to consider Rohingya Muslims as illegal infiltrators and send them back to Myanmar is well known. UN says India has an international responsibility towards refugees.
The United Nations also says that Rohingya Muslims are a persecuted and keeping in mind the way they were tortured and massacred in Myanmar, India should show leniency towards the Rohingyas and protect them and not they should be called illegal infiltrators and sent back to Myanmar.
What does the court say about Rohingya Muslims?
If we talk about the court’s stance on the issue of Rohingya Muslims illegally entering and staying in India, then many petitions regarding Rohingya migrants are pending in the Supreme Court. One of these petitions was filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay in 2017. In his petition, Upadhyay had demanded to identify Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims living illegally in India and send them back to their country within a year.
However, the court had sought response from the central and state governments on this petition. The Central and most of the state governments have not yet given any response on this. At the same time, some states have said that they will follow whatever order the Supreme Court gives.
Let us tell you that many Rohingya people had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court through Prashant Bhushan and in this petition had demanded to give refugee status to the Rohingya people in India, but the decision on this is yet to come. At the same time, another similar petition was filed in 2021 also.
At that time, an appeal was made to release about 168 Rohingya people lodged in Jammu jail and give them refugee status. The court had refused to give such an order. The court had also said that the government should keep these people in jail until arrangements are made to send them back following proper legal procedure.
