Keep the Rohingiyas out

The Centre has done well to tell the Supreme Court not to intervene in the Rohingiya issue, since the move to deport them was a policy decision in the larger interests of the country and because some of the Rohingiya refugees were linked to the Pakistani spy agency ISI and other terrorist groups. The Centre has also sought to make it clear to the apex court that the Rohingiya matter was not justiceable, and that since there was in existence a fair procedure prescribed by law for deportation, it should be left to “the Central government to exercise its essential executive function by way of a policy decision in the larger interests of the country.” The Centre also told the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A. M. Khanwilkar and Justice D. Y. Chandrachud that many Rohingiyas “figure in the suspected sinister designs of ISI/ISIS and other extremist groups that want to achieve their ultimate motives in India, including that of flaring up commul and sectarian violence in sensitive areas of the country”.  In its affidavit the Centre alleged that the Rohingiyas were engaged in mobilizing funds through hawala channels and in human trafficking. According to the Centre, the continued stay of Rohingiyas in India, apart from being absolutely illegal, was bound to have tiol security ramifications and serious security threats. Thousands of Rohingiyas have swarmed Bangladesh and India after fleeing a military offensive in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

One keeps overlooking important facts relating to the Rohingiya influx. The first is that though the influx began in 2012-13, the Indian government seems to have taken note of it only now. What is worse is that the Union Home Minister continues to insist that the fil decision on the Rohingiya refugees will have to be taken by the Supreme Court, though it is abundantly clear now that the Supreme Court does not have a clear enough notion about how serious the issue is. It has now become clear that neither the Supreme Court nor the Union Home Ministry has a clear idea of whose responsibility it is to solve a problem that has come India’s way through forcible infiltration and a reluctance to admit that India cannot be home to all kinds of refugees from its neighbourhood.