Should India prioritize its obligations under domestic and international law or its positive relations with Myanmar? Comment, in the context of Rohingya refugee issue.
IAS Parliament 7 years
Who are Rohingyas?
· The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic-minority group who lived in western coastal state of Rakhine, Myanmar for centuries.
· Despite living for centuries in Myanmar, the Rohingya, have been denied citizenship and have been rendered stateless.
· The steady increase in intensity of clashes between the military forces and rohingyas’ resulted in huge influx of refugees in to the nearby countries such as, Bangladesh, India. Etc.
· India views Rohingyas’ as an illegal immigrants and plans to deport 40,000 rohingyas’ settled in India.
Obligations before India
· India is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N.Convention relating to the status of Refugees which mandates the principle of non-refoulement.
· But, Non-refoulement is now nearly universally accepted as a fundamental rule of international law which was binding to states as a result of the practice of states.
· Principle of non-refoulement compelled that, no state shall expel a refugee to his/her own territory, where his/her life would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of particular group.
· Any such deportation should violate the fundamental rights to equality and to life under Articles 14 & 21 of our Indian constitution.
· Earlier Judgments of Delhi and Gujarat High courts also virtually incorporated non-refoulement in to the guarantees of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Challenges before India
· Maintaining peace and stability in the rakhine state is important for India’s economic interest as, if there is continued violence in rakhine state, it will affect India’s kaladan multi modal transit transport project which aims to build a deep water port in Kaladan River in sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state.
· India is in the process of sidelining SAARC and showcasing BIMSTEC as an alternative, in which both India and Myanmar are members. So, any strain in relationship between India and Myanmar would have repercussions in BIMSTEC and as well as India’s Act East Policy.
· If we allow Rohingyas’ into India, there are genuine fears that, destitute rohingya youth would be easy prey to Pakistan’s ISI and International jihadist outfits and a grave threat to India’s national security.
· India’s population stress would be even more expanding, if we allow rohingyas’ in to Indian Territory.
· Finally, not only as a major power in the South Asian region but also as the largest democracy in the world, there are expectations that India should extend help to the fleeing Rohingya, atleast on humanitarian grounds, and contribute to help resolve the conundrum. So, we have to maintain a balance by nurturing good relations with Myanmar government and as well as pushing Myanmar government to early resolution of this crisis.
