Dangers of ignoring the Rohingya crisis

AT A time when the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was hosting a conference of Myanmar’s Rohingya community in Jeddah for highlighting their plight to a larger international audience, Indian media was abuzz with stories linking the July 7 Bodh Gaya blasts in India’s Bihar province with the Buddhist persecution of Arakanese Muslims.
Even the most cursory look at the innuendos floating around gives a clear indication of the liberal Indian psyche being gripped by Islamophobia slowly but steadily. Unfortunately, a section of the establishment is complicit in the manufacture of hatred apart from a host of experts who shows no inhibition in jumping to conclusions within minutes of a terror strike. US President Barack Obama recognized the danger of such witch-hunting and urged fellow Americans to desist from stoking up anti-Muslim sentiment after the Boston marathon bombings. None of India’s politicians has displayed the same sagacity by cautioning the nation about the perils of making sweeping public statements on the alleged connection of Muslims with the Bodh Gaya blasts.
The very attempt to defile Bodh Gaya, the most sacred of the Buddhist pilgrimage site where Gautam Buddha attained supreme enlightenment some 2,540 years ago, can act as a centrifuge for triggering a fresh spate of anti-Muslim riots in Buddhist majority Myanmar and Sri Lanka having sizable Muslim population.
India’s all powerful intelligence apparatus too is guilty of committing the same crime as they somehow fail to realize that the continuous use of misinformation about terrorism to stereotype and stigmatize an entire community can eventually split a heterogeneous country like India down the middle even if such propaganda suits a particular strategic purpose.
Having themselves aided and abetted rebellion against the Myanmarese state in the past, Indian agencies are now working overtime to carve out a link between the Pakistan based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Rohingyas to nail New Delhi’s topmost bete noire at all cost.
Take for example the input from India’s principal intelligence official posted in Bangladesh, detailing the heightened collaboration between Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence and the dreaded terror outfits like (LeT) as well as Jaish-e-Mohammed in the Bandarban district of Chittagong Division where surreptitious camps are supposedly being organized to train disgruntled Rohingya youths.
Intriguing it is because the Chittagong Hill Tracts is a fiefdom of Indian intelligence operatives, to say the least, as the predominantly Buddhist local tribal community are known to be loyal Indian asset. How is it that an area dominated by Indian intelligence agents can turn into a hostile ground under their very watch unless there is some form of collusion? But then this peculiar tendency of over-assessing threat perceptions, often resulting in state excesses, is somehow ingrained in the civilian intelligence agencies’ culture. Even the late Indian Army Chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw was overtly critical of this trait, as he believed that this over indulgence in filing inaccurate dossier ultimately fuels a sense of injustice and alienation, thus leading to million mutinies. But his prophetic advice went unheeded as it never occurred to the officials working in intelligence setup that such professional misconduct ultimately ruins some bright lives and destroys many promising careers midway.
How long will it take for the security paraphernalia to grasp the harrowing truth that they are being used as a pawn to evoke a strange kind of eeriness within the country and that causes no less harm? Sadly, people fighting for preserving India’s sovereignty are not in a position to recognize that they are responsible for producing a more deranged form of patriotism that teaches the citizens to suspect even their own shadow.
Perhaps, it is high time for the Indian political leadership to take note of the fact that this whole debate over terror stings has entered a sensitive phase. An extremely disturbing pattern of bitter inter-faith rivalry is emerging throughout the region. The government must take all possible steps at its command to avert a serious confrontation before the situation spirals out of control. This includes impressing upon the Myanmarese government to grant citizenship to the beleaguered Rohingya community.
The Buddhist clergy, known as the Sangha, should take the lead in searching for common ground that can serve as a foundation for constructive interfaith dialogue between Muslim and Buddhist community leaders. Let us not forget that on numerous occasions Gautam Buddha had emphasized that Buddhism is not threatened by forces from outside, but by weaknesses from within. There is no denying the fact that some radical Buddhist elements cannot reconcile themselves to the reality of Buddhist majority nations offering due space to minority communities like Muslims and others.
Even though they may be a minority in their own community, these individuals with toxic mind must be reminded that it is easy to keep lighting the fires of hatred but extremely difficult to douse them once the flame starts ruining the society we live in.
So, instead of being the catalyst for turning the globe into a scary place; let each individual subscribing to whatever faith, strive for overcoming hatred. And as scriptures of all religion teach us — hatred is never overcome by hatred, it can only be surmounted by love.

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