Minorities deserve protection all over the world

Fresh violence against the minority Muslims in eastern Indian state of Assam has caused concern and anxiety as India is in the last leg of its staggered elections that began on April 07 and will close on May 12. The authorities have deployed army following the death of at least 30 Muslims in three days and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned the attack on the minorities.
But opposition front-runner for prime ministership Narendra Modi continues to harp on what he says "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh in India - a stance that is believed to be fomenting the violence against the minority Muslims. Modi has again raised this issue and vowed to send the "illegal Bangladeshis" to their homes once he is elected as prime minister. He made the comments while addressing election rallies in Paschimbanga and accused the state government of "protecting" these illegal Bangladeshis. Paschimbanga Chief Minister Mamata Baneerjee has accused Modi of divisive politics seeking to cash in on wrong issues.
Minorities are being targeted in different countries of south and south-east Asia for political and other reasons. Continued violence against the minority Muslim Rohingya community shows that there has been no let-up in the sad condition in Myanmar. In our region, occurrences of violence against the religious minorities appear to have become a common phenomenon. While Myanmar is intermittently in the news for anti-Rohingya incidents, India witnessed anti-Muslim violence sometime ago in the Uttar Pradesh state. Unfortunately, Bangladesh, which is known for communal harmony, is also experiencing violence against the minority.
The issue of anti-Muslim violence in Myanmar drew attention of the world community last year and, the matter has come to the fore again in 2014. Earlier, last year, in one of the worst incidents, 20 people were killed in the Buddhist-Muslim violence that sparked fears of spreading unrest. Swathes of Meiktila, eighty miles north of capital Naypyidaw, had been reduced to ashes following three days of widespread mayhem. In recent times, violence against the religious minorities in Bangladesh as a sequel to different developments has also caused concern and anxiety at home and abroad. Needless to say, repression against minorities anywhere, either by the authorities or the majority communities, is simply reprehensible and must be eliminated by all means.
Early last year, two issues involving the minorities - Rohingyas in Myanmar and largely Muslimsin the Indian state of Assam - had drawn the attention of the nternational community.
 Both the Indian central government and the Assam state government moved quickly to contain the  violence against the minority Muslims by the Bodo tribes in several places in Assam. But the same was not the case in Myanmar as it was alleged that the government broadly sided with the majority Buddhist Rakhine community against the Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar. However, Myanmar president Thein Sein invited the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). This was a positive signal from his government although no marked slackening in violence is discernible.
The Myanmar government's rare conciliatory move came on the heels of "concern" over the "Rohingya" expressed by different countries and quarters, including member-states of the  ASEAN, of which Myanmar is now chairman. The Myanmar authorities took steps to assuage the feelings of the minorities after the adverse response from international community on the issue.
An impression exists that Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who earned worldwide fame for her relentless struggle for democracy in Myanmar, did not side with the victims of communal violence in the manner expected from a person of her status. Nevertheless, she occasionally speaks against the repression on the minorities.
Rohingya issue is nothing new and Muslims from Myanmar in the past swarmed into Bangladesh on several occasions alleging atrocities. Bangladesh gave shelter to these people in camps in Cox's Bazar and other areas close to the border. Many of these refugees have gone back to their country following talks between two countries in which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was involved.
The Assam violence is a sad development and it is all the more disconcerting that political leaders are also spewing venom against the minorities instead of protecting them. The Indian elections have their own dimensions, but bringing in such issues like the "illegal Bangladeshis" has vitiated the atmosphere in states like Assam, Paschimbanga and Orissa.
The UN and other international agencies should take greater care so that minorities in any country are not persecuted on different pretexts.
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