Union home ministry denies Hardeep Puri’s Rohingya tweet – but blames media

Hardeep Singh Puri, union minister for housing and urban affairs, tweeted on Wednesday that the Indian government will provide housing and police protection to the Rohingya refugees in Delhi. Just a few hours later, the union home ministry denied there was such a plan. Instead of clarifying, however, that Puri was mistaken, the home ministry blamed the media. Quite unfairly, since news organisations including ANI, Reuters, Hindustan Times, India Today, and Business Standard had merely accurately reported Puri’s statement.

We should add that ANI was one of the first to report on it, saying Rohingya refugees would be given flats – a decision taken after a "high-level meeting" in Delhi.

The home ministry added that illegal foreigners will be kept in detention centres until they are deported. The Delhi government has not declared their present location as a detention centre, the ministry said, so it has been directed to do that immediately.

The home ministry’s “clarification” came after Puri’s statement drew angry reactions from his government’s supporters on social media.