Editorial Desk :
Statement by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Dhaka made it clear that India can’t help Bangladesh in handling the Rohingya crisis. Bangladesh expected that India would extend political and diplomatic support to bring sustained pressure on Myanmar government to stop the genocide of Rohingya Muslims. But the upbeat ended in deep frustration as Sushma Swaraj even avoided the word Rohingya in her press briefing pointing out them as displaced persons. This is how Myanmar government talks about them as the term Rohingya is officially banned there.
India has done the damage along with China when
it assured Myanmar about displacing Rohingyas from the Rakhine State without caring consequence for Bangladesh. It is foolish on our part to think that we can have solution to the Rohingya crisis by relying on India. India simply does not have that clout. We are only exposing our weakness.
We have always treated India as our best friend. But Sushma Swaraj has given a different signal openly supporting Myanmar when it is uprooting the Rohingya Muslims and driving them out to Bangladesh creating here a big crisis beyond our ability to cope.
So it is time our leadership should review our dependence on India for everything and have our own policies that can best suit our position in domestic and regional politics. The Rohingya crisis has made it clear that every country has to look after its own interest. India is doing what is best in her interest.
Sushma Swaraj mentioned about the Rohingya situation as ‘violence in Rakhine State’ without holding Myanmar responsible for the ethnic cleansing as a call of humanity. She has rather talked about long term solution saying Indian assistance would develop the state to facilitate the return of Rohingyas in their home in the long run.
What surprised many in Bangladesh was that the Indian minister was not diplomatic at all about showing friendliness over our expectation of help in facing the terrible situation created by forceful displacement of Rohingyas.
Indian diplomats are also making open statements in support of the Myanmar government. Former Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravorty in an interview recently with BBC said India has a special relation with Myanmar like Bangladesh has special relation with China. He suggested Bangladesh should ask China to take some refugees; it is not India’s problem.
China is also not helpful to us in respect of the worsening relationship with Myanmar. Myanmar has declared war against us by forcing out lakhs of their people to Bangladesh. We are not even pursuing our own diplomacy now to seek help from those who can help us and ready to do so.
Still our government is looking to India for guidance. The guidance that came from the visiting Indian External Affairs Minister was to wait till Rakhine State is developed with the help of China and India. Thereafter a solution would be found for all.
Our government is showing the world that we cannot rightly react to a crisis imposed from outside. We cannot have our own diplomatic offensive internationally when such an offensive is a must for our survival.
We are failing to take advantage of the world support we have against Myanmar’s brutalities against Rohingyas. The Rohingya issue is not a Bangladesh issue but an international issue. We have to internationalise our policy.
Statement by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Dhaka made it clear that India can’t help Bangladesh in handling the Rohingya crisis. Bangladesh expected that India would extend political and diplomatic support to bring sustained pressure on Myanmar government to stop the genocide of Rohingya Muslims. But the upbeat ended in deep frustration as Sushma Swaraj even avoided the word Rohingya in her press briefing pointing out them as displaced persons. This is how Myanmar government talks about them as the term Rohingya is officially banned there.
India has done the damage along with China when
it assured Myanmar about displacing Rohingyas from the Rakhine State without caring consequence for Bangladesh. It is foolish on our part to think that we can have solution to the Rohingya crisis by relying on India. India simply does not have that clout. We are only exposing our weakness.
We have always treated India as our best friend. But Sushma Swaraj has given a different signal openly supporting Myanmar when it is uprooting the Rohingya Muslims and driving them out to Bangladesh creating here a big crisis beyond our ability to cope.
So it is time our leadership should review our dependence on India for everything and have our own policies that can best suit our position in domestic and regional politics. The Rohingya crisis has made it clear that every country has to look after its own interest. India is doing what is best in her interest.
Sushma Swaraj mentioned about the Rohingya situation as ‘violence in Rakhine State’ without holding Myanmar responsible for the ethnic cleansing as a call of humanity. She has rather talked about long term solution saying Indian assistance would develop the state to facilitate the return of Rohingyas in their home in the long run.
What surprised many in Bangladesh was that the Indian minister was not diplomatic at all about showing friendliness over our expectation of help in facing the terrible situation created by forceful displacement of Rohingyas.
Indian diplomats are also making open statements in support of the Myanmar government. Former Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravorty in an interview recently with BBC said India has a special relation with Myanmar like Bangladesh has special relation with China. He suggested Bangladesh should ask China to take some refugees; it is not India’s problem.
China is also not helpful to us in respect of the worsening relationship with Myanmar. Myanmar has declared war against us by forcing out lakhs of their people to Bangladesh. We are not even pursuing our own diplomacy now to seek help from those who can help us and ready to do so.
Still our government is looking to India for guidance. The guidance that came from the visiting Indian External Affairs Minister was to wait till Rakhine State is developed with the help of China and India. Thereafter a solution would be found for all.
Our government is showing the world that we cannot rightly react to a crisis imposed from outside. We cannot have our own diplomatic offensive internationally when such an offensive is a must for our survival.
We are failing to take advantage of the world support we have against Myanmar’s brutalities against Rohingyas. The Rohingya issue is not a Bangladesh issue but an international issue. We have to internationalise our policy.
