"In his briefing to the security council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last year that the situation in Myanmar was “one of the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights crises.” But there is one question that has gone unanswered in the entire discussion over the Rohingya issue so far: how have India and Myanmar forgotten their hostilities to rally behind the massacre of the Rohingya people? Human rights groups have termed the Rohingya issue a “textbook case of ethnic cleansing.” A brief background of the geopolitics in the region will allow us to understand better how this bizarre alliance has unleashed such a terrible catastrophe. Since the Cold War era, when Myanmar and its junta faced international sanctions, China’s big-brotherly patronage transformed Myanmar into a virtual client-state of China. China was the economic and military bloodline, which made it possible for Myanmarese to breathe in an otherwise suffocating international environment. The days of the Cold War have gone, however, and China’s influence in the country has only increased since. Thanks to China’s ever-increasing penchant for growth and influence, China has several massive ongoing economic and infrastructure projects in Myanmar, and Myanmar's military equipment is predominantly supplied by the Chinese Given this love affair, it is only natural that India, China’s biggest rival in the region that refused to join the Chinese-led project, the Belt and Road Initiative or the New Silk Road project, be very concerned. India also shares a long border with Myanmar. The Indian side of the shared border with hosts the insurgency-ridden and heavily militarised northeastern states of India, which have added volatility to bilateral relations. The same logic that has kept India suspicious of Chinese influence on its borders should dictate that India would oppose Myanmar permitting the Chinese to build a seaport in the western coastal state of Arakan (official name was changed to Rakhine). However, India has not raised its voice on this issue. Why? Well, the Answer lies in a shared enemy. India's populist Hindutva nationalism under the current BJP regime, which is centred around Bengali Muslims (e.g. the case of Assam), has overlapped with Theravada Buddhist-nationalism in Myanmar, which also identifies Bengali Muslims (in this case Rohingya) as its enemy..."