Rohingyas and the (Il)Legal Quest drastic shift in the stance of a government that is currently only seeing Rohingyas as illegal immigrants and not even as refugees. Nevertheless, a starting point could be to give Indian citizenship to the children born to Rohingya parents on Indian soil. India may not have signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 25 nor the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 26 but it has signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘CRC’). By that measure India, as a state party, must fulfill its obligations under art 7 of the CRC: 1. The child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. 2. States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless. 27 Moreover, it is the duty of the state to respect international law and treaties, a feature embedded within the Constitution of India 1950 itself. 28 Hannah Arendt in her work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 29 explained the motivation of stateless persons who have to commit crimes and transgress the law in the following manner: ‘Since he was the anomaly for whom the general law did not provide, it was better for him to become an anomaly for which it did provide, that of the criminal’. 30 Here, Arendt spoke in the context of stateless people who committed petty crimes like theft in the hope that, after becoming a criminal, they could be recognised by law and receive legal aid. But in a developing country like India, even Indian citizens find it difficult to get legal aid. 31 It is this harsh reality that pushes the stateless Rohingyas, who live under a constant fear of deportation and who possess no right to legal residence and livelihood opportunities, to commit serious crimes like procuring an Indian passport fraudulently. Nevertheless, this does not absolve sovereign states of their responsibility to provide the right to nationality to the stateless. It is the sovereign act of withholding and arbitrarily denying the right to nationality that abets stateless persons to commit crimes against sovereign states. 25 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, opened for signature 28 July 1951, 189 UNTS 150 (entered into force 22 April 1954). 26 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, opened for signature 28 September 1954, 360 UNTS 117 (entered into force 6 June 1960). 27 Convention on the Rights of the Child, opened for signature 28 November 1989, (entered into force 2 September 1990). 28 According to Constitution of India 1950 art 51(c), the state shall endeavour to foster respect for international law and treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another. 29 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (World Publishing Company 1958). 30 ibid 286. 31 See India Justice Report: Ranking States on Police, Judiciary, Prisons and Legal Aid (Report, Tata Trusts October 2019) <https://www.tatatrusts.org/upload/pdf/overall-report-single.pdf>. 347