Varun Gandhi New Delhi, Sept. 26: BJP parliamentarian Varun Gandhi today advocated asylum for Rohingya Muslims, saying India should show empathy and follow its tradition of offering hospitality and shelter to guests, and kicked off a row by been seen as questioning the government and party line. Varun sought to describe the Rohingya refugees as victims of foreign policy and domestic politics and referred to international treaties to claim that India should not deport anyone who could be persecuted because of their faith. "We should certainly provide asylum to Myanmari Rohingya refugees but before that legitimate security concerns should be assessed," Varun wrote. Junior home minister Hansraj Ahir said the comments of Varun, the MP from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, were against national interest. As for the Rohingya, I've called for empathy, leading potentially to asylum, while vetting each applicant for national security concerns," Varun tweeted.

Source: The Telegraph September 26, 2017 21:11 UTC