Rohingyas and the (Il)Legal Quest immigration when they procured Aadhaar cards and Indian passports through the provision of false information. 5 Prima facie, there seems nothing wrong with these arrests; these are acts of forgery, cheating and giving false declaration — all of which violate Indian laws, particularly the Indian Penal Code and the Indian Passports Act. 6 However, it is important to note the overall context within which these crimes have been committed. Two entities are prominent in this context. On the one hand are the Rohingyas, one of the world’s most persecuted stateless minorities, who have been arbitrarily denied nationality by Myanmar and are without the citizenship of any country. On the other hand, is India, the world’s largest democracy, which has held a good reputation for being a host to refugees for several years. This commentary does not justify crime in any way. Rather, by examining the case of Rohingyas committing crimes against Indian laws, it seeks to draw attention to responsibility on the part of sovereign states when stateless persons — that is, persons without the citizenship of any country — commit crimes against sovereign laws. THE COUNTERFEIT CONTEXT OF INDIA It is a grim reality that any identity card in India can be easily made through fraudulent means. The Aadhaar card aimed to curb this by giving a unique 12-digit number to every resident of India, capturing their biometric and demographic data. Unfortunately, fake Aadhaar cards are still in operation and are used not just by the Rohingyas, but by several non-citizens living within India. In fact, I can testify to this with my own experience. A couple of years ago I wanted to open a new bank account and one of the primary conditions was to provide Aadhaar card details. I still remember that I had to give my thumbprints several times before the reading machine could verify the authenticity of my Aadhaar card. At one point, the cashier even doubted me and declared, ‘ma’am, you have a fake Aadhaar card!’ In India, the ‘counterfeit’ quickly follows the ‘real’ until it comes to a point that one needs sharp eyes to separate the two. Consider this, almost all official Indian government websites open with a disclaimer window alerting the user to fake websites in operation. The official website of the Ministry of External Affairs, which issues Indian passports, is not immune to this. Currently, the disclaimer window on the official website shows more than six fake websites that offer services to procure an Indian passport. 7 Kamal Sadiq, in his book Paper Citizens, recognised the weak citizenshipidentification and documentation systems of developing countries like India. 8 He argued that illegal immigrants can easily acquire identity cards, like the ration card, and go on to become Indian citizens, a process he terms ‘documentary citizenship’. 9 In this respect, the Rohingyas who have tried to acquire identity documents, especially the Voter ID card and the Indian passport, can be seen as 5 6 7 8 9 ‘5 Rohingyas, Including 3 Women, Arrested for Illegal Immigration in Telangana’, Ani News (online, 9 June 2020) <https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/5-rohingyasincluding-3-women-arrested-for-illegal-immigration-in-telangana20200609205816/>. See Indian Penal Code, Act No 45 of 1860 (India); Passports Act, Act No 15 of 1967 (India). See Ministry of External Affairs (Web Page) <mea.gov.in>. Kamal Sadiq, Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing Countries (Oxford University Press 2009) 102–11. ibid 110. 343