{"id":34330,"date":"2018-10-30T17:02:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34330"},"modified":"2018-10-30T17:02:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:32:28","slug":"india-for-constructive-rohingya-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-for-constructive-rohingya-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"India for \u2018constructive\u2019 Rohingya policy:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-national\/india-for-constructive-rohingya-policy\/article19928491.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India for \u2018constructive\u2019 Rohingya policy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India on Thursday said that displaced members of the Rohingya community will have to return to their place of origin in the Rakhine province of Myanmar.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Introduction:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking on the prospects of India-Japan cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and Asia-Pacific regions, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar highlighted India\u2019s regional humanitarian responsibilities and growing convergence with Tokyo.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He also highlighted the need for \u201ca sober, sensitive and locally sensitive approach\u201d in dealing with the humanitarian emergency that the exodus had become.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Regional cooperation:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mr.Jaishankar also brought up the ties between connectivity, regional cooperation and humanitarian response to evolving crisis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOne of the areas we want to see in the agenda of <\/span><b>BIMSTEC is collaboration on the HADR\u2014 that, we would like these member countries to cooperate on humanitarian assistance to disaster situation.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> In the last three years, Nepal earthquake relief, (India\u2019s response to) Yemen civil war, Maldives water crisis, and even Operation Insaniyat for the Rohingyas are part of cooperation.\u201d Mr Jaishankar highlighted.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nepal earthquake relief, India\u2019s response to Yemen civil war, Maldivian water crisis, and <\/span><b>Operation Insaniyat for the Rohingyas <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are part of cooperation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Who are the Rohingyas?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority group living primarily in Myanmar\u2019s western Rakhine state.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The estimated one million Rohingya in Myanmar account for nearly a third of Rakhine\u2019s population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The Rohingya differ from Myanmar\u2019s dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What is the crisis?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rohingya crisis is a human rights crisis with serious humanitarian consequences.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large number of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar, many crossing by land into Bangladesh, while others take to the sea to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The unfair policies of the Myanmar government in Rakhine state have resulted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee since the late 1970s.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why the issue of ethnicity for Rohingya?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rohingya trace their origins in the region to the fifteenth century when thousands of Muslims came to the former Arakan Kingdom.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many others arrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when Bengal and the Rakhine territory were governed by colonial rule as part of British India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since independence in 1948, successive governments in Burma, renamed Myanmar in 1989, have refuted the Rohingya\u2019s historical claims and denied the group recognition as one of the country\u2019s 135 ethnic groups.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both the Myanmar government and the Rakhine state\u2019s dominant ethnic Buddhist group, known as the Rakhine, reject the use of the label \u201cRohingya.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why are Rohingya fleeing Myanmar?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Government policies, including restrictions on marriage, family planning, employment, education, religious choice, and freedom of movement have institutionalized systemic discrimination against the ethnic group.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rakhine state is also Myanmar\u2019s least developed state, with more than 78 percent of households living below the poverty threshold, according to World Bank estimates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Widespread poverty, weak infrastructure, and a lack of employment opportunities exacerbate the cleavage between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Rohingyas in India<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are an estimated 36,000 Rohingya Muslims in India today, concentrated in the seven states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delhi stance on the Rohingyas is firm; they are welcome as long as the Rohingyas obtain a valid visa and have a refugee card.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a refugee card, the Rohingyas can\u2019t claim land, health benefits or education for their kids<\/span><b>. <\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a Reuters report, only 9000 of the 36,000 Rohingyas who live in India are registered.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why such distant stand by India?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rohingya crisis is irreconcilable and unresolvable. All that can be done is try to mitigate it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With India having no solution or expertise to offer, it is a good reason to stay away.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has real security interests which depend on the goodwill of the Myanmar regime.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2015, for instance, following an attack by Naga rebels on a security convoy in Manipur, Indian forces carried out a covert raid across the border \u2013 with the quiet nod from Yangon. Delhi does not want that trust to be eroded.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A new Muslim militant minority across India\u2019s eastern border poses a severe security threat to the stability in Bangladesh and, in turn, across Assam and northeast India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several thousands of Rohingya refugees already reside in India and with support from activists they could disrupt Delhi\u2019s relations with Myanmar.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Impact on India<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When peace returns to Myanmar, India can ask the latter to rehabilitate the Rohingyas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>A stable and democratic Myanmar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will naturally gravitate towards New Delhi.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rohingya crisis, if it remains unsettled, can become a path toward <\/span><b>radicalization<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and pose a greater security threat for India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are reports of increasing radicalization among sections of the Rohingya community.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A December 2016 report by the International Crisis Group spoke precisely about this challenge and highlighted how rights violations can lead to radicalization.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>About BIMSTEC:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>The Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an international organization involving a group of countries in South Asia and South East Asia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These countries includes: <\/span><b>Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BIMSTEC states are among the countries dependent on the Bay of Bengal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">BIMSTEC \u00a0is home to around 1.5 billion people, constituting around 22% of global population with a combined GDP of $2.7 trillion economy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Majority of the BIMSTEC countries are situated in South Asian Region (SAR) prone to natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes, avalanche.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The seven-country forum aims to achieve its own free trade area by 2017.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Objective of BIMSTEC:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Technological and economic co-operation among south Asian and South East Asian <\/b><b><\/b><b>countries along the coast of the bay of Bengal . <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commerce, investment, technology, tourism, human resource development, agriculture, fisheries, transport and communication, textiles, leather etc. have been included in it .<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Operation Insaaniyat :<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has decided to provide humanitarian assistance to Rohingya community though <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Operation Insaaniyat:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Key features of Operation Insaaniyat:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian government has decided to assist Bangladesh in this crisis by sending relief material. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>The Defence ministry assured the relief material will be delivered in multiple consignments. Items include rice, pulses, sugar, salt, cooking oil, tea, ready to eat noodles, biscuits, mosquito nets etc.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Air Force was tasked to airlift the relief material from India to Bangladesh. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One C-17 Globemaster strategic heavy lift cargo aircraft was positioned at short notice at Delhi on 13 Sep 17 to airlift 55 Tons of relief material to Chittagong, Bangladesh.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One more C-17 is scheduled to airlift additional relief material to Bangladesh. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Air Force rose to the challenge and played a pivotal role to further strengthen the close ties of friendship between India and Bangladesh.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India for \u2018constructive\u2019 Rohingya policy: Context: India on Thursday said that displaced members of the Rohingya community will have to return to their place of origin in the Rakhine province of Myanmar. Introduction: Speaking on the prospects of India-Japan cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and Asia-Pacific regions, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar highlighted India\u2019s regional&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/india-for-constructive-rohingya-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India for \u2018constructive\u2019 Rohingya policy:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704881501},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}