New Delhi: Rohingya Muslims are once again at the centre of a political row in Delhi, where assembly elections are due in two months, with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing each other of allowing members of the community to “illegally settle” in the city.
Stung by BJP’s allegations that it helped Rohingyas and Bangladeshis illegally obtain voter identity cards over the past decade when it governed the city, the AAP Sunday raked up an over two-year-old statement by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri that Rohingya refugees will be shifted to low-cost flats in Delhi’s Bakkarwala. The Union government later denied this claim.
In near-identical posts on X (formerly Twitter), AAP leaders claimed that Puri’s statement was clear evidence that it was the BJP who was behind “bringing and settling” the Rohingyas in Delhi.
On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi shared Puri’s old post, adding, “The BJP people were in such a rush to make false allegations against Arvind Kejriwal that they forgot who brought the Rohingya to Delhi, who settled them and where. But the thing about truth is that it always comes out.”
भाजपा वालों: अरविंद केजरीवाल पर झूठे आरोप लगाने की इतनी जल्दी थी कि यह याद नहीं रहा कि रोहिंग्या को दिल्ली में कौन लाया, किसने बसाया, कहाँ बसाया!
लेकिन सच्चाई की ख़ास बात है कि वो सामने आ ही जाती है! और आज दिल्लीवालों के सामने सच्चाई हरदीप पूरी जी के इस ट्वीट से आ गई है। https://t.co/HHqnynx7Xg
— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) December 8, 2024
The Rohingyas account for the largest percentage of Muslims in neighbouring Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship. Fleeing persecution and state crackdowns, with a heightened intensity since 2017, the ethnic minority has taken shelter in India and Bangladesh. The United Nations has described members of the community as among the “most discriminated people in the world”.
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An old political slugfest
On 17 August 2022, tagging the Prime Minister’s Office, Puri announced on X, “India has always welcomed those who have sought refuge in the country. In a landmark decision, all Rohingya Refugees will be shifted to EWS (economically weaker section) flats in Bakkarwala area of Delhi. They will be provided basic amenities, UNHCR IDs and round-the-clock Delhi Police protection.”
Even then, the AAP had latched on to the post to corner the BJP, prompting the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue a clarification that it has not given any such directions. According to official records, around 1,200 Rohingyas, who came to India around 2012, live in shanties at Kalindi Kunj in Delhi.
“The Government of Delhi proposed to shift the Rohingyas to a new location. MHA has directed the Government of Delhi to ensure that the Rohingya illegal foreigners will continue at the present location at Kanchan Kunj, Madanpur Khadar as MHA has already taken up the matter of deportation of illegal foreigners with the concerned country through the Ministry of External Affairs,” the MHA said, hours after Puri’s post.
“Illegal foreigners are to be kept in the Detention Centre till their deportation as per law. The Government of Delhi has not declared the present location as a Detention Centre. They have been directed to do the same immediately.”
Subsequently, Puri said that the MHA’s press statement on the issue gave the “correct position”. However, he never deleted his original post that triggered the current political slugfest. And, over two years later, the AAP once again dug it up to put the BJP in a spot as the two parties battle it out for electoral supremacy in the assembly polls.
Bid to gain electoral supremacy
Earlier in 2022, the AAP, in the aftermath of communal violence and a demolition drive in a minority-dominated pocket in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri neighbourhood, had accused the BJP of staging riots by settling Bangladeshis and the Rohingya across India.
It was then seen as yet another attempt by the AAP leadership at borrowing majoritarian political rhetoric to blunt the BJP’s attempts to link its policies with minority appeasement.
Earlier, the AAP had invited criticism from the liberal commentariat and rights groups for its ambiguous stand on issues such as the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act sit-ins at Shaheen Bagh and its hesitance in reaching out to the victims of the communal riots in northeast Delhi.
The Rohingya issue was foregrounded by the BJP Friday to counter Kejriwal’s charge that the party, in cahoots with the Election Commission of India, was conspiring to strike off the names of thousands of AAP voters from the city’s electoral rolls. The EC, through the office of the district magistrate of the city’s Shahdara district, denied the allegation.
The BJP, in turn, accused the AAP of getting the names of illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants added to the voter lists, misusing the official machinery.
As a counter, the AAP has now fallen back on Puri’s old post on X. Apart from Atishi, AAP MPs Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh; Delhi ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Gopal Rai; and party national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak shared Puri’s older post on X with the caption, “Read this tweet by Hardeep Puri. You will know who brought the Rohingya to Delhi, who settled them and where”.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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