Rohingyas deportation: Should India put humanity before nation?

According to UN data, India is home to two million refugees. But the Rohingya have remained an exception.

In July last year, the Union government tabled the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament. The bill sought to accommodate illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who had fled religious persecution, so that they would be spared imprisonment or deportation. However, it did not apply to Muslims, nor to the refugees from Nepal, Myanmar or Sri Lanka.

That was perhaps the first hint of the government's stand on the 40,000 illegal Rohingya Muslims in the country. The government's stand became clear on August 8, almost a month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Myanmar, when the Union home ministry directed state governments to conduct surveys and plan for the deportation of illegal Rohingya Muslims.