The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has criticised India for seeking to deport Rohingyas who fled to India from neighboring Myanmar.
There goes an Odia proverb : GARIBA MAIPI SABURI SAALI. Transliterated means "A poor woman is every body's sister-in-law (denotes wife's younger sister prone to teasing). Metaphorically it stands "A weakling is poked fun at by one and all".
India, still perceived as a soft state is being treated so by UN. I don't remember this bloated, inefficient, nincompoop and corrupt bureaucracy with more failures than successes on its balance sheet, has been anything but critical of bigger powers who hold it to ransom. Here are couple of examples to elucidate my viewpoint.
US has stubbornly refused to accept any Syrian refusees. When Obama, a Left liberal from Chicago proposed to take in Syrian refugees during his 2nd term, the Congress rejected his move with a veto proof 2/3rd majority, where a sizable number of Democrats voted against their own President.
Expecting anything of that order under a Trump administration is a pipe dream. America hardly cares about what UN thinks when it comes to protect its national interest. Nor I heard United Nation of getting critical of US for not letting in the Syrian refugees, as it foots the bills of its bureaucrats too used to fribees.
China on the other hand goes a step further. In its restive XinXiang province it ruthlessly forces its Muslim citizens to eat during the day time at the time of Ramzan, cut down their beards and make them dance on the street, literally. It is said that China humiliates leaders of Uighur separatists by forcing them to consume Pork and Liquor, both HARAAM or sacrilegious under Islam. Hardly any protest from the Islamic world. The silence of the custodians of Islam, e.g, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan as well as United Nations is not golden, rather speaks volumes.
There could be 1001 instances of UN's hypocrisy which is beyond the scope of this blog. The former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Tip O'Neil famously said "All politics is local". Foreign policy is an extension of preserving a country's national interest, unless you are a dreamer of utopian proportion but a la India's first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Any prudent nation on earth pursue that, with or without United Nations.
It is heartening to see India injecting some pragmatism into its foreign policy and coming out of the Nehruvian mindset by staying out of this Myanmar mess. I am completely against any kind of killing of the innocents and for the rehabilitation of Rohingyas or anyone else facing genocide.
But at the same time, I would expect Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and the rest of the champions of the Islamic world to come forward and share the burden of these Myanmar refusees who number just less than a million in a world of 7.5 billion people. The Human Rights Commission better come out of its bureaucratic stranglehold and focus on these self proclaimed flag bearers of Islam to accomodate them on their vast lands, rather than being critical of India.
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