INDIAN Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale left Dhaka on Tuesday, ending his two-day official visit to Bangladesh. According to the diplomatic circle, Gokhale came here to finalize the schedule of the meeting between PM Sheikh Hasina and Indian Premier Narendra Modi on April 19 or 20 on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London. The two Premiers will discuss a wide range of bilateral and regional issues and review the implementation of the 62-point joint statement issued during Hasina’s India visit in April 2017.
The visiting Indian foreign secretary held a closed-door meeting with a select group of people representing media and civil society at a city hotel on Sunday. In the meeting he said, ‘India sincerely wants an early solution to the current Rohingya crisis as it considers it a serious security concern. India already conveyed its wish that Myanmar should come forward to solve the crisis and take back its nationals who took shelter in Bangladesh.’
Mr. Gokhale mentioned ‘nationals’ should be taken back. It is very much contradictory. We know, except a very few Myanmar government even doesn’t consider the majority Rohingyas as their nationals. So, it was clear from the Indian FS statement that India cannot be of any help; but our leadership is so helpless that it is relying on India’s help without knowing how to take help and who can really help in Rohingya issue. We have telling from the very beginning that Myanmar is taking full advantage of our foreign policy lapses. It is our Foreign Ministry people that claimed they can solve the refugee issue bilaterally and the government is not still sure how to organise international cooperation.
During a meeting with Indian FS, Bangladesh PM has urged India to put ‘more pressure’ on Myanmar to take back over one million Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. Did India ever put any pressure on Myanmar earlier? If not, then how it will put more pressure?
This refugee crisis should have taken from the beginning that the forced mass migration through genocide is an international crime and we can be helpful only if international communities through the United Nations are ready to deal with the rouge country Myanmar. Our Foreign Ministry meekly received delegations from Myanmar with flowers thinking appeasement will serve the purpose. Myanmar committed crimes against humanity and also aggression against us and we were on our knees to keep Myanmar in good humour.
We are not to be surprised if our international friends so willing to help us got the wrong message. Even we are not sure how much we depend of UN role. The international pressure being created for the trial of those in Myanmar who committed genocide is a bid to pressure for taking back the refugees.
