A leading RSS ideologue today wanted India to raise its voice against persecution of the Yazidis by ISIL extremists in Iraq and decried the 'muted' response from international community despite the issue throwing up the fundamental question of survival of a minuscule minority.

Thiruvananthapuram: A leading RSS ideologue today wanted India to raise its voice against persecution of the Yazidis by ISIL extremists in Iraq and decried the "muted" response from international community despite the issue throwing up the fundamental question of survival of a minuscule minority.

Director of the Bharathiya Vicharakendram P Parmaeswaran in a statement here said it was surprising that the cruelty meted out to Yazidis had not sparked widespread protests. He sought to know whether India will save the minuscule minority taking cue from the country's history of giving asylums to Jews and Parsis.

"We are living in a globalised world where mutual contact and communication and safe passage from one country to the other are the norm. But how is it that the Yazidis could not find an escape route and get external support for evacuating them?," he said. Recalling that history had instances of persecuted people seeking refuge in India and by taking this tradition as a guide Yazidis could have been given asylum in India, he said.

"When the Jews were persecuted, they came to India and remained, not only safe and secure but also with absolute freedom of worship, as a trading community in Kerala. Later on, when the Parsis were persecuted they too came to India and lived and served India as a flourishing and prosperous community.

"If this tradition is taken as a guide the Yezidis could have been given safe asylum in India," he said asking "can India save the few remaining Yazidi people from total extinction? He, however, said in the prevailing world situation the major blame for failure to protect Yazidis should be laid on the powerful nations and world organisations like the United Nations.

In a dig at the Indian Left, he said the silence of the "Leftist and progressive intellectuals "was stunning as it went sharply against their vociferous campaigns on the Palastine issue. Parameswaran said it was encouraging to see that Pope Francis had made a statement that this cruelty against a section of humanity was an act which neither man nor God should forgive.

PTI