The Rohingya issue is a continuation of the communal conflict between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority in Myanmar which has spilled over to India. The Union Government itself had claimed the number of such ‘refugee’ Muslims somewhere near to six crores. Myanmar suffered from long-standing sanctions by the West until 2011, when President Thein Sein came to power and started a series of political and economic reforms. Since then, Myanmar has opened its doors to foreign investment. However, societal stability remains weak, caused by entrenched communal conflict that sometimes turned violent. The influx of these migrants in India has been the result of communal conflict in Myanmar. Jammu too has come into the loop of such malady because of proximity to Pakistan and being the part of Muslim majority State. The influx is seen as a potential threat to the cultural, historical and religious identity of Jammu. As compared to silence of mainstream parties others like J and K National Panthers Party has been heading a campaign for the ouster of the community and has been critical of the coalition partners’ silence. State Government but the nee is opposing the settlement of these illegal immigrants without initiating any tangible measures for their deportation. The State Government had admitted on the floor of the House that there were several thousands of Burmese families who had unlawfully settled in the outskirts of Jammu city and Samba besides several thousand immigrants from Bangladesh were also believed to have inhabited the city illegally who had been living in shanties and slums at some of the congested colonies including Rajiv Nagar, Kassim Nagar, Narwal, Bhatindi, Borhi, Channi Himmat, Nagrota and areas adjoining the Bahu Fort besides others. Similarly, thousands of Tibetan Muslim refugees who were forced to flee China had been settled by the State Government in the colonies located at Idgah, Badamwari and Gulshan Mohalla in Kashmir and Ladakh. It seems a deep rooted conspiracy has been hatched by certain unscrupulous forces to settle the immigrants in and around Jammu city so that social fabric can be disturbed as and when required. The silence of BJP leadership over the issue is intriguing. It is high time that the State and Union Government work a way out before this overshadows the demography of the region as well as becomes a security threat.
