‘Criminalized for Politics’: Rohingya caught at the election in Delhi Crossfire | Rohingya News
New Delhi, India -In morning, Mohammad*, 32, watches his 12-year-old daughter, Fatima*, wake up with the same enthusiasm-by doing her worn uniform, neatly knitting your hair and sprinting at the Government school in New Delhi Khajuri Khas area in northeast, where they live with about 40 others Rohingya Families in cramped rented rooms.
Fatima is among a few children Rohingye in Khajuri Khas with an approach to formal education at the Government School. Many other children like her, including her younger brother Ahmed*have been denied for years in school reception.
As the new academic year begins next month, Fatima is afraid that he may suffer the same fate.
On Christmas in December, while tens of thousands of Delhi students were looking forward to a winter break, national capital territory Chief Minister Atishiwho goes to her name, published on the X: “Today, the Department of Education of the Government Delhi brought a strict order that no rohings should be enrolled in the Government school in Delhi.”
Atishi, a former Rhodes scholar who studied in Oxford, is the leader Aam aadmi party (Common Man Party or AAP), a relatively new political force in India, which owes its foundation in 2012 to the popular “poor” and anti-corruption movement.
AAP, which has been governing the national capital territory of Delhi for more than a decade, is looking for a return to power in the province An integral election Maintain on Wednesday. The results will be declared on Saturday.
But this year, AAP faces the serious challenge of right-wing premiere Narendra Modi Party Bharatiya Janata (BJP), which controls 20 36 countries of India and Province under the control of federal controlled (called union territories) -bilo directly or through coalition partners-Ali and via Coalition partners are not in power in the national capital for more than 25 years.
‘Parties trying to make up for each other’
On December 11, a Lieutenant in Delhi who appointed BJP ordered a special urge to identify and act against “all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh” who are “involved in criminal activities in the city”.
Bangladesh, an Indian neighbor in the east, hosts more than a million Rohingye, mostly Muslim ethnic groupMost of which rejected what the United Nations described as “the case of ethnic cleansing textbooks” in 2017. It was the greatest exodus of a community that has been fled for decades in state persecution in the Buddhist majority of Mjanmar.
Nearly 40,000 Rohingye, like Mohammad, came to India in search of safety and means of life and settled in several parts of the country. New Delhi is a home of about 1,100 of them, according to an assessment of the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR), most of whom were limited to a predominantly Muslim district of the city.
BJP and other right -wing groups, whose policy depends on the antimuscan platform, were Attacking Rohingy For years, he accused them of “terrorist” connections and demanded their arrests and deportation from the country. Many have been in custody in the capital and other parts of the country.
During a press conference on Monday, BJP spokesman Sambit Patro accused the Government of AAP of causing a “demographic manipulation” to influence the electoral process in the national capital. The Hindu Majoritarian Party has repeatedly accused AAP of adding “illegal banglades” to the voter lists to expand her vote base.
Addressing the election rally last week, Federal Minister of Rob, Amit Shah, promised that if the BJP came to power, “he would free the Delhi illegal Bangladesh and Rohingyas in two years.” Shah – and many in his party – in the past they called themselves migrants in Bangladesh as “Termit” and “infiltrators”.
The BJP does not surpass in the race for power in Delhi, the current AAP government has also raised the terrain against Rohingye, in turn accusing BJP for bad border control that facilitates their entry into the country.
On December 15, four days after Delhi’s governor of Lieutenant ordered a ride against the Bangladesh migrant, Atishi accused the BJP of “mitigating” Rohingyu. She invited the 2022 Social Media Minister of Federal Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to relocate Rhingye refugees in Government apartments. Modi’s government Quickly withdrawn On this point, the rejected publication of any such directive.
Days later, Atishi forbade all Rohingye children to seek admission to Delhi’s public school.
“Now this [election] The campaign has reached low where both parties are trying to make up for each other by an attack on Rohingy, “Al Jazeera Angshuman Choudhary, a doctorate at the National University of Singapore, who works on a migrant issues, told Al Jazeera.
Choudhary said it was the first time that the Government had systematically denied education to the children.
“There was a discrimination earlier, but Human officials in some schools would apply their mind and give a recognition to children. This scope has ended since this command came from the top,” he said.
“Now the BJP would also have nothing against the doubling and proving its own credentials against Rohingye if he is threatened,” he said, adding that the trend could have a “particularly devastating consequences” and the effect of overflowing, especially in BJP-ruled countries.
“There have been many cases where AAP surpassed BJP aiming at Rohingy,” said Apoorvanand, a professor of Hindi at Delhi University, who also goes on one name, he told Al Jazeera.
He said that AAP “is no different from BJP when it comes to ultransationalist rhetoric and rhetoric against refuge.”
“AAP presented itself as a persistent nationalist and anti -corruption alternative party. His current rhetoric anti-Rohingye is in line with what the party has been standing for a long time. It is unnecessary that the final destination of this nationalism is the same as the BJP. “
‘Our fight for security continues’
Caught in the election crossfire between the two political parties, many rohing say that they cannot return to the mjanmar. “Two weeks ago, the army was killed by two of my cousins in Burma,” Mohammad told Al Jazeera, using a previous name for Mjanmar.
He added, however, that it is increasingly difficult for the community to live in Delhi.
About 25 km (16 miles) away from Mohammad’s house, in the southeastern corner of the city, is Madanpur Khadar, Dusty, Dovered Colony in which there is Camp for Rohingye.
Eight months, the residents of the camp live without electricity. There is no toilet, and drinking water is delivered through tankers twice a week. Most families relive here for charity, and let their children attend a neighboring school.
But after another election campaign against Rohingye, they are not sure of their children’s future education.
“The problem is not just elections. This [targeting of Rohingya] It happens for many years in India. We didn’t come here for politics, we came to save our lives. But unfortunately, it seems we can’t find peace here. We have been criminalized for years on behalf of politics, and our struggle for safety continues without end, “she told Al Jazeera Sabber Kyaw Min, activist Rohingya and founder of the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative.
Fatima’s father Mohammad says that the denial of the education of Rohingye children is not a new phenomenon in the city. He says that unlike Fatima, his 10 -year -old son Faizan failed to join the school.
“At this age, I do not want him to feel that he is different,” Mohammad told Al Jazeera, adding that in the last five years he had approached at least four government schools for Faizan. But they all refused.
‘Deeply shameful’
Mohammad says the situation worsened at the end of 2019 when Modi’s government passed controversial Citizenship Law and his party asked for National Citizens Register -Asts seen as antimuslim moves that launched protests throughout the country and deadly communal riots in New Delhi in early 2020.
“After 2020, most of the Rohingye children did not receive a school receipt,” Mohammad said, adding that the authorities began to look for government documents to refugees cannot own. Previously, children like Fatima have provided reception by using the identity cards issued by the UNHCR.
“I met and pleaded with local authorities at least 25 times,” Mohammad said. “They are looking for Aadhaar [India’s biometric ID] Cards. We don’t have them and we can’t get it because it would be illegal. “
In October last year, Social Jurist, a non -governmental organization based in New Delhi, filed a petition before the Delhi High Court, asking why children Rohingyi were denied education when they were available to refugees from other countries. The petition was rejected.
The non -governmental organizations approached the Supreme Court, which held a hearing last week, asking the applicant to find out if they lived Rohingya in improvised camps or regular districts. The top court will listen to the next thing later this month.
“Even in Delhi, where education was previously available, now this exclusion takes place. It is deeply shameful that highly educated individuals are proud of the prohibition of these children from schools,” activist Rohingya, based in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera, but Johar .
“Now I understand the importance of education,” says Ali’s brother Salimullah. Their sister Tasmida is First graduate Rohingya From India and is now engaged in a master’s degree in politics from Canadian University of Wilfrid Laurier as part of the UNHCR-DUOLING program.
“Earlier my family and I opposed her education, but to our brother [Ali] She insisted on it and supported it throughout the whole. Today, she made us proud and also supports us, “Salimullah said.
Mohammad says that is why he wants his children to be educated.
“It’s the only way to get our progress. I can’t read and write. But I feel proud when my daughter reads phone messages for me and answers in English,” he said.
From Atishi’s command, Fatima prayed with her father to admit to a private school. Mohammad, a daily worker who also depends on the help of charity organizations, cannot afford excessive fees in private schools.
But he hopes to watch his supreme court. “Indian law treats people fairly,” he says.
Asked which profession Fatima wants to continue in the future, he said: “He wants to become a teacher … She will learn everything that all children are children – and equal.”
* *Names have been changed to protect your identity
