Political lines are once again being drawn up in India over refugees, this time from Myanmar. Though over 3,13,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to their ancient homeland Bangladesh from Rakhine State in Myanmar, several thousand may spill over the porous border into the Northeast. Anticipating an influx, Manipur government has already tightened security along its border with Myanmar. The issue has already stirred up divisions in that State with the Meitei Youth Front asserting that Muslims of Myanmar and Manipur are different, while questioning the ‘motive’ of some Muslim organisations there demanding refugee status for Rohingyas. The Central government, meanwhile, has taken the position that the Rohingyas are illegal immigrants and must go back. But New Delhi is in a piquant position with Myanmar unwilling to accept them and the Rohingyas desperate not to return. Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju has ruled out using force to deport them. “We are not going to throw them in the middle of the ocean or shoot them. Why are we being accused of being very inhuman?” he asked recently, clearly exasperated with criticism from rights groups and political opponents. So how will the Centre go about it? Apparently, it has pushed the ball into the court of State governments, issuing an advisory to set up task forces ‘to identify and deport all illegally staying immigrants, as they pose a threat to tiol security’. And what is this threat perception? Reportedly, the Central government has decided to consult the tiol Security Advisor and chiefs of intelligence agencies and security forces. Referring to these recent developments, former BJP leader KN Govindacharya last week petitioned the Supreme Court seeking deportation of Rohingyas on the ground that terror outfits like Al-Qaeda is trying to use the Rohingya community as a shield to carry out jihad and cause ‘another partition of the country’.