Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s statement that the Rohingya are “illegal immigrants” is a falsehood (“Rajnath: Rohingya are illegal immigrants, not refugees”, September 22). The truth is that they are political refugees who fled Myanmar to escape persecution. The fear that they can pose a threat to national security is unfounded and an escape route to downplay the humanitarian crisis. To say that they have “links to terrorist outfits” without any evidence to substantiate the claim is to mislead the public. The visibly emaciated Rohingya we see in moving visuals do not look like radicals. Having 40,000 or so refugees would not be a huge drain on India’s resources and would not make a significant alteration to India’s demographic profile.
To see one set of refugees from the “security angle” and another set from the “religious angle” is not worthy of a secular state. All refugees, be they from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan or Myanmar, must be seen from a “humanitarian angle”. We bat for the refugees in question not because they are Rohingya Muslims, but because they are members of the wider human family.
G. David Milton
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
