Are Refugees Outsiders?

By: Sep 30th, 2017 12:18 am

newsKuldeep Nayar

(The writer is a veteran Indian journalist, author and noted columnist.)

Communist leader Jyoti Basu ruled West Bengal for two and a half decades. He fought relentlessly against the communal forces. It is surprising how the RSS has penetrated and practically taken over the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is in power in the state at present but even her adherence admits that they are fighting a losing battle. The RSS has moved into the interior of the state and its morning shakhas are being held in every park. How and why it has happened is a case study.

Mamata is accused of trying to appease the Muslims when she vainly banned the immersion of Durga idols beyond certain hours. The state government, according to news reports, apprehended that both immersion processions and the Muharram processions will be taken out deliberately to cross each other’s path, putting the contaminated administration to a stern test. However, the Culcutta High Court intervened to restore the status quo.

Perhaps, what prompted Mamata to order the ban was the steady string of communal riots that have been breaking out in the districts. Controversies over the routes of Muharram processions, too, had ignited the spark. In addition, the accusations by belligerent Hindu groups, comprising both Bengalis and non-Bengalis, had sprung up to resist ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ and ‘Islamic terrorists.’All these added to the communal cauldron that was already boiling, thanks to a steady exodus of Hindus from Bangladesh in recent times. However, the rising Islamic radicalism and the steady attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh have led to fresh exodus over a decade. Unable to find a living, the economically poor are mostly confined to the border districts, eking out a living through odd jobs. Understandably, the Bengalis harbour deep resentment of ‘the other’ Muslims. And these are the ones that RSS has targeted cleverly to pull on to its side.

Against this backdrop, the Bangladeshis are going through a peculiar problem of exodus of Rohingyas, a minority Muslim community, from Myanmar. Dhaka has provided shelter to these refugees on humanitarian ground but beyond a point it cannot help much. The number of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since late August has reached 480,000, challenging efforts to care for them, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The exodus of Rohingyas has also posed a problem to New Delhi since some of them have infiltrated into India through the northeastern states which are sharing a long border with Myanmar. Even as the government is trying to prove to the court their association with Pakistani terrorist groups, BJP MP Varun Gandhi has advocated asylum for Rohingya Muslims who have escaped the violence in Myanmar. This is a view that is in contrast to what the government has advocated.

The government recently told the Supreme Court that it will give evidence to the court. According to the government, some Rohingya militants are linked with Pakistan-based terrorist groups. The centre has said it will deport all 40,000 Rohingyas who are illegal immigrants. The move has been challenged in court by two Rohingya petitioners who said that their community is peace-loving and that most of them have no link to any terror activity.

New Delhi has to face the refugee problem stoically. There are Kashmiri pundits in Jammu and Bangladeshi Muslims in Kolkata and Guwahati. So is the case with Sri Lankan Tamils who have taken asylum in Tamil Nadu. Small skirmishes are already taking place and pose a serious problem. But the Rohingyas exodus has forced the government to revisit the issue of refugees, giving a political colour to a human issue.

What is disconcerting is that the problem is slowly getting a communal colour—Hindu versus Muslim. West Bengal, which is already sitting on a volcano, has to retrieve the situation which may get out of control. In fact, the secular and democratic forces would have to join hands to fight against the onslaught of Hindutva elements.

Sadly, one has to admit that the country is going towards a philosophy which has been fought by Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Our heritage is pluralism and its essence has to be kept alive. This is not a one-party task. All like-minded and non-BJP forces have to come together to fight against the creeping communal forces. With the Hindu extremists getting an upper hand in every sphere, it is an uphill task. But there is no option either. If we want communalism to be rolled back to restore the ethos of pluralism, the secular forces have to go to the grassroots. The communists are giving the impression as if they alone are putting up a fight. The Congress is also doing so relentlessly, however irrelevant it looks in the present scenario.


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