All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday lashed out at the Centre, accusing it of 'hypocrisy' in its refugee policy.
According to reports, the Hyderabad MP was addressing a public meeting in Chanchalguda.
"Don't look at them as Muslims. They are refugees. The Bangladesh ambassador met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that there are three lakh refugees at the Bangladesh border. If you are a regional power, then you will have to deal with the situation," Owaisi was quoted as saying.
Stating that the BJP government should not look at the present crisis through a communal prism, he asked if this move would secure India the seat that it wants, on the United Nations Security Council.
“When Tasleema Nasreen can be the Prime Minister's sister, why cannot a Rohingya refugee be his brother?" Owaisi asked.
“Is it humanity to send those people back who have lost everything? It’s wrong. Under which law can the Centre send back Rohingya refugees? We hope that the Government of India gives shelter, an opportunity to live a respectful life and a future to their children, because the Constitution gives the Right to Equality and the Right to Life, not only to its Indian citizens, but to all refugees as well,” Owaisi told the gathering.
Last week, several organisations took to the streets of Hyderabad to express solidarity with the Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar, and protest the Centre's plans to deport them.
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.
In Hyderabad, protests in support of the Rohingyas were led by city-based organisations like Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) and Darsgah Jihad-O-Shahadat (DJS), who also raised slogans and held placards that read 'Stop killings of innocent Rohingya Muslims in Burma' and 'Stop genocide of Rohingyas'.
IANS inputs