NEW DELHI: The BJP MP Varun Gandhi kicked off a storm within the saffron outfit by striking a discordant note on the issue of Rohingya immigrants against the government’s position which linked the fleeing Minority community from Myanmar with a security risk.
Union Minister of state for home affairs Hansraj Ahir expressed displeasure with Gandhi’s contentions expressed in an article in a Hindi daily, saying people with high regard to national interest could not be making such a comment.
Gandhi articulated empathy for the Rohingyas in the face of “persecution” in the Rakhine valley in Myanmar, which has forced them to flee their country for shelter in Bangladesh. The BJP MP argued that India should take a re-look to its asylum policy in the light of international conventions and historical tradition of the country.
After Ahir made public government’s and BJP’s displeasure with Gandhi’s opinions, the Lok Sabha MP from Sultanpur, who describes himself as a Parliamentarian and a columnist, clarified that “his article focused primarily on defining India’s asylum policy, with clear demarcations of how they (immigrants) could be accepted (in the country)”.
“As for the Rohingyas, I have called for empathy, leading potentially to asylum, while vetting each applicant for national security concerns,” Gandhi stated in a tweet, which was apparently meant for clarification.
However, his clarification made it clear that he stood the ground on the issue despite a minister publicly disagreeing with him.
Gandhi noted in the article that there should be a distinction between the immigrants fleeing their countries on account of persecution and poverty.
The government maintains that the Rohingyas are illegal immigrants who would be deported from the country. The Centre in an affidavit to the Supreme Court had linked the Rohingyas with the issue of threat to the national security.
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