The flood of Rohingya ‘refugees’ into India has assumed alarming dimensions. Not only the state governments are burdened with the non-stop influx of these unfortunate stateless persons under severe stress, the Indian State is also being pilloried in international fora for its ‘cussed’ response to what others perceive as an ‘unprecedented humanitarian crisis’.
First things first. It is imperative in this case and all such cases, to distinguish between asylum-seeking refugees and illegal immigrants. Relief and temporary rehabilitation is a duty that no civilised society can shirk but at the same time those who chide and admonish India for doing little or being heartless must realise that there are limits to compassion. It is not relevant for India to be lectured on how Germany has ideally coped with its own refugee crisis. Nor are reminders about past practice regarding Tibetan, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and other sundry refugees from Pakistan. Of course, millions of Nepali of non-Indian origin living in more or less permanently can’t be labelled as refugees and compared with any other community. India has in past received—willingly or unwillingly—millions of asylum-seekers and has shown exceptional resilience. No one has the right to chastise us about our inhuman treatment of Rohingyas.
Unfortunately, needlessly rattled by the liberal-democratic-pseudo secular brigades’ assault, the government has much too hastily pleaded ultra sensitive security concerns in its primary defence. This has only allowed its critics to ‘communalise’ the issue. The charge now is that Rohingyas are being sent back to sure death and barbaric genocide just because they are Moslems. No one bothers to ask why Bangladesh is also turning them back to the same fate. It is also difficult to understand why all asylum-seekers should demand citizen’s rights without any cooling-off period. The homeless and stateless Rohingyas have travelled as far out as Jammu and Delhi—away from the entry points creating pockets of shanties/ghettos that can only aggravate social tensions and discord. In Jammu, for instance, there is a large concentration of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits and other refugees who have been eking out a miserable sub-human existence for decades. When they see the PDP ministers with hearts bleeding for Rohingyas, their alienation and anger are bound to mount.
Assam has undergone a disastrous demographic change in the recent years. The politics of vote banks pursued by the Congress, CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress has resulted in pushing that state to the edge of the precipice. The patience of its residents—all Indian citizens—is running out. The Central government has not been able to project that it is not due to the BJP’s entry in Assam the situation has dangerously deteriorated. It is the appeasement of illegal immigrants and their encroachment on tribal land and usurpation of resident citizens’ rights that have engendered this explosive crisis.
This brings us to the latest gaffe committed by Rahul Gandhi describing Gandhi, Ambedkar, Azad et al as NRIs. In the same breath, he has unabashedly admitted being a dynast and also provided rare sociological insights for his fawning foreign audience into the role dynasties have played and continue to play in making India tick. We are reasonably sure that soon enough one of his mentors-handlers will advise him to add jugaad to this knowledge capsule. But let’s not digress. RaGa’s mother Sonia Gandhi has long been criticised for not being a born-in-India citizen. Some believe that it was this Albatross around her neck that constrained her to nominate Manmohan Singh as the PM. It seems that the worthy son has decided to slay this dragon once for all. The good man Sam Pitroda who chaperoned him
on the Ivy League campuses is himself a distinguished NRI. The strategy appears to follow the precept propounded by Capt Liddle Hart with impromptu improvisations.
The grand strategy for the revival of the Congress is unfolding before our eyes. RaGa, who has utterly failed to win over his compatriots to the causes he champions, has decided to reinforce his claims to leading India by emphasising his connect with NRIs. The support abroad of his candidature—it is hoped by his supporters—will ultimately create a groundswell unleashing a tsunami in his favour before 2019. Modi, we are told, could only impress the gullible masses. RaGa is performing a Class Act. It’s not for us to point out the obvious flaws in such elitist thinking. We the People of India are quite capable of differentiating between asylum-seeking refugees, illegal immigrants and opportunist PIOs or real and fake NRIs. Following in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers requires more than slick scripts and reassuring applause of hand-picked audience.
In the end, the BJP must blame itself for letting the advantage slip from its hands since the Rajya Sabha elections. It should focus on the management of economy rather than responding to the antics of a failed dynast.
Pushpesh Pant
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpeshpant@gmail.com