Issue :   
October 2017 Edition of Power Politics is updated.  Happy Diwali to all our subscribers and Distributors       October 2017 Edition of Power Politics is updated.   Happy Diwali to all our subscribers and Distributors       
Issue:Sep' 2017

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Of suffering immigrants

Humra Quraishi

Rohingya refugees walk to the shore after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border by boat through the Bay of Bengal in Teknaf, Bangladesh. With the government of the day all set to deport thousands of the Rohingya refugees who had fled here to India , from Myanmar , after facing the worst forms of brutalities in their home country , these refugees are asking : Does the Indian government want us to be massacred…do they realize that we will be killed, if thrown back to our home country? Why we fled and reached here? Only and only to save our lives. See our living conditions , we are living worse than animals but at least we are alive! Yes, it will be human rights violation as these hapless men and women and children fled Myanmar in the worst of conditions and are living here in sub – human conditions , yet even that seems getting snatched from them.
To quote Amnesty International India on this - 'Any measures taken by Indian authorities to forcibly return Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers to Myanmar, where they are at risk of serious human rights violations, would be a flagrant violation of international law…Sending Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar - where the community has faced horrific abuses - would not just be a violation of India's commitments under international law, but also a blemish on India's history of supporting those fleeing persecution…
Rohingya Muslims, who are among the most persecuted minorities in the world, have faced years of discrimination, repression and violence in Myanmar. In December 2016, Amnesty International documented a brutal campaign of violence against the Rohingya by security forces in Myanmar, which could amount to crimes against humanity. The organization found evidence of a wide range of human rights violations in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, including unlawful killings, multiple rapes, and the burning down of hundreds of Rohingya homes and buildings.
Forcing Rohingya asylum-seekers and refugees back to Myanmar would violate the international principle of non-refoulement - which is recognized in customary international law and is binding on India - that forbids states from forcibly returning people to a country where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations.
India is also a state party to o t h e r i n t e r n a t i o n a l treaties which recognize this p r i n c i p l e , including the I n t e r n a t i o n a l Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Indian authorities know very well the abuses the Rohingya community have been facing in Myanmar. Deporting them and abandoning them to their fates would be unconscionable.' In fact, Amnesty International India has also highlighted a very significant factor.
I quote, 'As a country aspiring to a larger global role, India needs to urgently sign the Refugee Convention and put in place a robust domestic framework to protect refugee rights…Despite being home to thousands of refugees, India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and does not have a domestic legal refugee protection framework. The treatment of refugees falls largely under the Foreigners Act of 1946, which makes no distinction between asylumseekers, refugees and other foreigners. The Act makes undocumented physical presence in the country a crime.The Indian government has mandated the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to register and provide assistance to refugees from nonneighbouring countries and Myanmar.
According to UNHCR, there are around 14,000 registered Rohingya people in India, including 3,000 asylum-seekers and 11,000 who have been granted refugee status by the organization. However the Indian government does not officially recognize these people as refugees.In February, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report which documented the human rights violations against Rohingya people. In March, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar presented her latest findings on human rights violations in Myanmar.
Reports of the Special Rapporteur, the OHCHR, Amnesty International and other organizations have found that Rohingya women and girls have been raped, hundreds of people forcibly disappeared and an unknown number killed by security forces in Myanmar. Tens of thousands of Rohingya people have been displaced – many after their homes were burned to the ground by state security forces…In March, India, at the UN Human Rights Council, also supported through consensus the creation of an international fact-finding mission to look into human rights violations in Rakhine state.'
Are the biased and politically charged barriers coming in our way from reaching out to these refugeseekers? Today more and more Right -wing governments are hardening their stand .Sadly, even the United Nations has not been able to give the required cushioning to hundreds of refugees in deep distress, desperately looking for refuge ,just about somewhere and anywhere…What's their future and where do they go , running from one country to the next ? How many perish whilst trying to flee?

INDIA DISSENTS

In fact, this brings me to focus on this just launched volume - India Dissents: 3,000 years of Difference, Doubt and Argument. Published by Speaking Tiger , edited by Ashok Vajpeyi, it dwells on the significance that ought to be given to dissent. To quote from it , 'Throughout Indian history, various individuals and groups have questioned , ensured and debated authority - be it the State or empire, religious or political traditions , caste hierarchies, patriarchy or even the idea of god. These dissenting voices have persisted despite all attempts made to silence them. They have inspired revolutions and uprisings, helped preserve individual dignity and freedom, and promoted tolerance and a plurality in thought and lifestyle.'
And tucked in the 546 pages of this volume are thoughts ,essays , letters , verse, reports, poetry and lyrics and songs , calls- to – action from texts ranging from the Rig Veda to Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste; to the words cum thoughts of Buddha , Nanak , Gandhi , Tagore, Ghalib , Akka Mahadevi , Lal Ded, Manto, Mahashweta Devi , Jayaprakash Narayan , Amartya Sen and several others … As Ashok Vajpeyi writes in his introduction to the volume – 'It can be r e a s o n a b l y argued that in India, from the beginning of its c i v i l i z a t i o n a l e n t e r p r i s e , nothing has r e m a i n e d singular for long; in fact ,nothing has been in a sense, allowed to be singular for long. Whether God or religion, philosophy or metaphysics , language or custom, cuisine or costume, every realm is marked by plurality. It is not accidental that that in many western languages the word India is plural – 'Indes',meaning 'Indias'…
Commenting on the climate of intolerance, the Economic and Political Weekly wrote recently, 'While Dabholkar, Pansare, MM Kulburgi's murders ( as well as harassment meted out to others like them ) are deplorable, what is even more despicable is the silence of large sections of the population and the continuing support of political interests to their tormentors. This lack of response is a clear indication that citizens feel they are not safe if they speak out against entrenched religious vested interests and that the State will not take their complaints seriously. A society that cannot tolerate dissenting views or keeps quiet in the face of a violent reaction to such views is staring at a cultural and intellectual abyss.' '

Words of Baba Farid …

These lines of Baba Farid Shakarganj (1173-1265 AD) hold out for the administrators, politicians, cops of the day - 'Farid, the earth questioned the sky, Where are the mighty captains gone? In their grave they rot, was the reply.'