Congress, Rahul should make stand clear on Rohingyas: Shah

Addressing a programme organised by Aaj Tak channel, he said Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor had yesterday written a letter to the prime minister on Rohingya Muslims, favouring their entry into India.

“I would like to tell Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party to make their stand clear on the issue. The case of Rohingya Muslims is being fought by another senior leader Kapil Sibal,” he said.

On being asked whether it was right to blame the entire community due to some radicalised people, Shah said the Centre has considered all the facts and presented its view seriously before the Supreme Court.

“This is not a simple issue. This is not a question of human rights…this is a question of the nation’s security. We have suffered in the past, but now we have to keep a strong vigil to stop infiltration from across the borders,” Shah said.

“We can provide food to them, we can provide them clothes, medicines in Myanmar, we can give all economic help, but there will be no compromise with the country’s security,” he added.

Lakhs of Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state in Myanmar in the aftermath of a military crackdown.

India, in a statement last month, had expressed “deep concern” over developments in Rakhine state and urged that the situation should be handled with “restraint and maturity”, focusing on the welfare of the civilian population alongside those of the security forces.

Last month, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that Rohingya refugees were “illegal” immigrants and some of them were part of a “sinister” design of Pakistan’s ISI and terror groups such as the ISIS, whose presence in the country will pose a “serious” national security threat.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had made its stand clear in the affidavit filed in the apex court on September 18, in which it also said the fundamental right to settle in any part of the country was available only to Indian citizens and not the Rohingya.