TIME: How India’s Newly Empowered Opposition Can Stand Up for Rohingya

By Rasheed Ahmed

In July 2023, Indian authorities led a Rohingya refugee couple to burial grounds in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Their 40-day-old daughter had just died in the refugee detention center where the couple was also held, following refugee-led protests in which police deployed teargas against detainees. As their daughter was buried, they watched on with handcuffed wrists, tethered to police escorts.

Video of the incident caused a stir in India, but it was just one tragedy in the broader campaign of intense persecution Rohingya refugees have faced from the Hindu nationalist government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Muslim Rohingya came to India fleeing genocide by the military in neighboring Myanmar, but now has to contend with death threats, police brutality, arbitrary arrest, deportation, and dehumanizing hate speech from leading figures within Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

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