India

Govindacharya moves SC seeking deportation of Rohingyas

Former BJP leader and Hindutva ideologue K.N. Govindacharya on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking deportation of Rohingya Muslims, expressing apprehension that the terror outfit Al-Qaeda was trying to use Rohingya community for terror and Jihad.

Govindacharya has in his application, seeking to be impleaded in an already pending matter, said: “It has also become known that Al-Qaeda is trying to use the Rohingya community for terror and Jihad, and if Rohingyas’ plea is entertained, then it may lead to another partition of the country.”

Along with Govindacharya, advocate Rohit Pandey has also moved the top court seeking deportation of Rohingya Muslims.

The top court is hearing a plea by one Mohammad Salimullah and others seeking a direction to the central government not to deport about 40,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees back to Myanmar.

Counsel Prashant Bhushan is appearing for Mohammad Salimullah and other petitioners.

On September 4, the top court had directed Mohammad Salimullah to serve the copy of his petition on the central government counsel, Assistant Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta.

Next hearing has been scheduled for Monday.

Govindacharya has said the “population explosion” was taking a heavy toll on the already strained resources of the country.

“People are dying in Delhi under heaps of garbage and Rohingyas’ demand to the government to provide them with basic amenities violate the fundamental rights of Indians,” he said.

His impleadment application mentions that the Union Home Ministry has issued an advisory to all the states to “identify and deport all illegally staying immigrants, as they pose a threat to the national security”.

Telling the court that he had retired from active politics and was engaged in social service and associated with Rashtriya Swabhimaan Aandolan, Govindacharya has said that “the decision by the government has not been made in a haste”.

The government’s decision to consult the National Security Advisor and Intelligence Bureau Director, besides other top officers of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and other intelligence agencies, showed that “the threat is credible”.

The impleadment application says that the “national security has to be paramount even if it is pitted against the celebrated right to privacy”.

Rohingya Muslim refugees have taken shelter in India and a large number of them in Bangladesh to escape persecution against them by Myanmar authorities.

The Rohingya immigrants, who fled to India after violence in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar, have landed in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.

Mohammad Salimullah and others have moved the top court urging it to direct that they should not be deported as they faced certain death in Mayanmar from where they had fled to escaped persecution.

The petitioner has said the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) too had taken note of the Rohingya refugees issue and sought the Union Home Ministry’s report.

Taking suo motu cognizance of media reports regarding the government’s plan to deport them, the NHRC had on August 18 observed that “refugees are no doubt foreign nationals but they are human beings, and before taking a big step the government of India has to look into every aspect of the situation”.

The NHRC had observed that the Supreme Court had consistently held that the Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution regarding Right to Life and Personal Liberty, applied to all, irrespective of whether they are citizens of India or not.

Referring to the international convention on human rights and other world bodies, including UNHCR, Bhushan had said that refugees could not be expelled if they face certain death or torture back home.

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