Modi government blocks Rohingya refugees entering India
By
K. Ratnayake
30 September 2017
The Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deployed security forces along India’s northeastern borders to prevent thousands of Rohingya refugees entering the country. The Rohingya are fleeing ongoing military violence in Myanmar (Burma). New Delhi also plans to expel around 40,000 Rohingya already in India.
On September 22, Reuters reported that India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) had been authorised to use “rude and crude methods” to block the refugees. One official told the news agency, “We won’t tolerate Rohingya on Indian soil,” he said.
R.P.S. Jaswal, a BSF deputy inspector general leading patrols in the east Indian state of West Bengal, admitted that his troops had been ordered to use chilli grenades and stun grenades. Chilli grenades cause severe irritation and temporarily immobilise people who are targetted.
On Wednesday, the Hindu reported that the BSF had pushed back Rohingya trying to cross into the northeastern Indian state of Tripura. The newspaper claimed this was the first such incident since India’s home ministry ordered the BSF on August 19 to stop the refugees.
The newspaper has also reported that the chief ministers of Assam and Manipur had instructed border forces to prevent the fleeing Rohingya coming to their states. Assam and Manipur are ruled by political allies of Modi’s Hindu-supremacist Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP). The Tripura state government is controlled by the Stalinist Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led Left Front.
A recent editorial in People’s Democracy, the CPM’s web site, criticised government attempts to deport the Rohingya but did not defend the right to asylum or oppose New Delhi’s violent…