India to deport Rohingya refugees, as the world moves towards prosecuting Myanmar for genocide

By Tapan Bose*
Seven Rohingya Muslims refugees who were held at a detention centre in Assam since 2012 will be handed over to Myanmar. The Supreme Court of India has refused to stop their deportation. The new Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gagoi said, "We are not inclined to interfere on the decision taken".
Rejecting the argument of lawyer of the Rohingyas that the government's move was against the UN charter, the Supreme Court accepted the Central Government's statement that the Rohingya were illegal immigrants and Myanmar had accepted them as citizens.
The seven Rohingya refugees were bussed to the border on Wednesday to be deported.
Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, additional director general of police in the northeastern state of Assam, told Reuters, “This is a routine procedure, we deport all illegal foreigners.” However, this will be the first time Rohingya immigrants would be sent back to Myanmar from India.
It is wrong to say that these Rohingya have been recognised as citizens. A letter issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) on September 27, 2018 shows that the Special Branch of Delhi Police is clearly collaborating with Myanmar Government. It has accepted a separate nationality verification form issued by the Embassy of Myanmar and is coercing the Rohingya refugees to fill and sign this form.
This form includes additional identifiers which were not included in the form circulated by Indian Home Ministry in October, 2017. Rohingya refugees have said that the form given by the embassy is the same as National Verification Card (NVC) which falsely frames Rohingyas as "foreigners or foreign-born or those with foreign roots”.
It effectively frames Rohingyas as "foreigners or foreign-born or those with foreign roots”. It is not clear whether the Supreme Court has seen the form and satisfied itself about the status of citizenship that Myanmar has granted to the seven Rohingyas.
This is being done when the UN refugee agency has clearly said that the conditions in Rakhine were not conducive for the safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has come under fire, including in the latest UN report and by prominent human rights organizations, for remaining silent on the military’s brazen brutalities against the minority community. UN rapporteur on racism Tendayi Achiume in a letter to Government of India on October 2, 2018 has pointed out:
“Given the ethnic identity of the men, this is a flagrant denial of their right to protection and could amount to refuoulement… The Indian Government has an international legal obligation to fully acknowledge the institutionalised discrimination, persecution, hate and gross human rights violations these people have faced in their country of origin and provide them the necessary protection.”
Though India is not a signatory, it has a history of generosity towards persecuted people seeking safety within its borders. However, changes in people's attitude to Rohingyas first began in August 2017, when news emerged of guidance sent by the BJP-led Central government to all the 29 states, asking local officials to identify illegal immigrants for deportation -- including, Rohingya Muslims who had fled Myanmar.
Kiren Rijiju, junior Home Minister told the Parliament on August 9, 2017, "The government has issued detailed instructions for deportation of illegal foreign nationals including Rohingyas."
The words from one of Kiren Rijiju set off a wave of fear and uncertainty across Rohingya settlements in India. As Ali Johar, a Rohingya refugee who challenged the Home Ministry order told me, "We felt scared, we asked people about what we should do, who we should talk to? Where else can we go?"
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on September 18, 2017 the government said that there exists "authentic material indicating linkages of some of the unauthorized Rohingya immigrants with Pakistan based terror organizations" and "that many of the Rohingyas figure in the suspected sinister designs of ISI/ISIS and other extremist group." Though the government said that it would submit evidence of this to the Supreme Court in a "sealed cover," to date, no evidence has been made publicly available that firmly links Rohingya refugees with international terrorist networks.
The Indian government may not be a signatory to the specific UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, nor the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, it is party to many other international conventions, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which include the principle of "non-refoulement," which is the right to be protected from violence in their home country.
It is clear that the Indian government is now going back on its long-stated policy towards refugees. In the case of Rohingyas, the BJP led government is playing domestic communal politics by trying to whip up communal sentiment, by labeling them as Muslims and potential terrorists. As the debate rages on publicly, Rohingya refugees continue to live in fear as they encounter more local hostility.
It is appalling that at a time when the world community is moving towards prosecuting the Myanmar government for genocide, India, the world’s largest democracy, has become the first country to deport members of the world’s most persecuted community back to Myanmar, where they have been systematically, torture, raped, butchered and forcibly evicted.
---
*Writer and documentary filmmaker, member of the Free Rohingya Coalition, former secretary-general of the South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR) based in Hong Kong and Kathmandu

Comments

Uma said…

One cannot get away from the feeling that had the Rohingyas not been Muslims, they would have been allowed to stay on.

October 05, 2018

The soundtrack of resistance: How 'Sada Sada Ya Nabi' is fueling the Iran war

By Syed Ali Mujtaba* The Persian track “ Sada Sada Ya Nabi ye ” by Hossein Sotoodeh has taken the world by storm. This viral media has cut across linguistic barriers to achieve cult status, reaching over 10 million views. The electrifying music and passionate rendition by the Iranian singer have resonated across the globe, particularly as the high-intensity military conflict involving Iran entered its second month in March 2026.

Kolkata dialogue flags policy and finance deficit in wetland sustainability

By A Representative Wetlands were the focus of India–Germany climate talks in Kolkata, where experts from government, business, and civil society stressed both their ecological importance and the urgent need for stronger conservation frameworks.

Beyond Lata: How Asha Bhosle redefined the female voice with her underrated versatility

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The news of iconic Asha Bhosle’s ‘untimely’ demise has shocked music lovers across the country. Asha Tai was 92 years young. Normally, people celebrate a passing at this age, but Asha Bhosle—much like another legend, Dev Anand—never made us feel she was growing old. She was perhaps the most versatile artist in Bombay cinema. Hailing from a family devoted to music, Asha’s journey to success and fame was not easy. Her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar, had already become the voice of women in cinema, and most contemporaries like Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and Noor Jehan had slowly faded into oblivion. Frankly, there was no second or third to Lata Mangeshkar; she became the first—and perhaps the only—choice for music directors and all those who mattered in filmmaking. Asha started her musical journey at age 10 with a Marathi film, but her first break in Hindustani cinema came with the film "Chunariya" (1948). Though she was not the first choice of ...

Lata Mangeshkar, a Dalit from Devdasi family, 'refused to sing a song' about Ambedkar

By Pramod Ranjan* An artist is known and respected for her art. But she is equally, or even more so known and respected for her social concerns. An artist's social concerns or in other words, her worldview, give a direction and purpose to her art. History remembers only such artists whose social concerns are deep, reasoned and of durable importance. Lata Mangeshkar (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was a celebrated playback singer of the Hindi film industry. She was the uncrowned queen of Indian music for over seven decades. Her popularity was unmatched. Her songs were heard and admired not only in India but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other South Asian countries. In this article, we will focus on her social concerns. Lata lived for 92 long years. Music ran in her blood. Her father also belonged to the world of music. Her two sisters, Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, are well-known singers. Lata might have been born in Indore but the blood of a famous Devdasi family...

Maoist activity in India: Weakening structures, 'shifts' in leadership, strategy and ideology

By Harsh Thakor* Recent statements by government representatives have suggested that Maoism in India has been effectively eliminated, citing the weakening of central leadership and intensified security operations. These claims follow sustained counterinsurgency efforts across key regions, including central and eastern India. However, available information from security agencies and independent observers indicates that while the organizational structure of the CPI (Maoist) has been significantly disrupted, elements of the movement remain active. Reports acknowledge the continued presence of cadres in certain forested regions such as Bastar and parts of Dandakaranya, alongside smaller, decentralized units adapting their operational strategies.

46% own nothing, 1% own 18%: The truth about India’s land inequality

By Vikas Meshram * “Agriculture is the backbone of India” — this is what we have been hearing for generations. But there is a pain hollowing out this backbone from within: the unequal distribution of land. On one hand, news of farmer suicides, indebtedness, and rural migration keeps coming; on the other, agricultural land across the country continues to concentrate in the hands of a few wealthy individuals.

From Manesar to Noida: Workers take to streets for bread, media looks away

By Sunil Kumar* Across several states in India, a workers’ movement is gathering momentum. This is not a movement born of luxury or ambition, nor a demand for power-sharing within the state. At its core lies a stark and basic plea: the right to survive with dignity—adequate food, and wages sufficient to afford it.

US study links ultra-processed diets to preterm birth, sparks concern in India

By Jag Jivan A growing body of scientific evidence linking ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption during pregnancy to adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes has sparked fresh concern among public health experts, with Indian nutrition advocates warning of serious implications for the country’s already strained maternal health landscape.

Midnight weeping: The sociology of tragic vision in Badri Narayan’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Badri Narayan, a distinguished Hindi poet and social scientist, occupies a unique position in contemporary Indian intellectual life by bridging the worlds of creative literature and critical social inquiry. His poetic journey began significantly with the 1993 collection 'Saca Sune Hue Kaï Dina Hue' (Truth Heard Many Days Ago). As a social historian and cultural anthropologist, Narayan pioneered a methodological shift away from elite archives toward the oral traditions and folk myths of marginalized communities. He eventually legitimized "folk-ethnography" as a rigorous academic discipline during his tenure as Director of the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute.

Search This Blog