New Delhi, Sept. 15: India is pressing Myanmar to stanch the exodus of Rohingya refugees and end violence against them, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina last night.

The stand articulated by Sushma is at odds with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and adds to the sharpening inconsistencies in India's response to the crisis.

Modi had publicly supported Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's handling of the Rohingya crisis during a visit to that country on September 6, calling her efforts at peace and reconciliation "brave".

But the Modi government has since repeatedly sent mixed signals about the crisis amid a cleavage between a security establishment keen to emphasise the hard-line option of deporting Rohingya refugees from India, and a foreign office desperate to highlight a more sensitive approach.

Sushma telephoned Hasina at 9.15 India time last evening - after a day when those contradictions within the Modi administration came to a head in public - to try and assuage Dhaka's concerns, three senior Indian officials told The Telegraph.

In the morning, the foreign office had announced Operation Insaniyat, a relief effort under which India will supply 7 million kilograms of food and mosquito nets to Bangladesh, which is struggling with nearly 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have crossed over from Myanmar.

But that humanitarian gesture appeared undermined by evening after the leak of a draft home ministry affidavit that justified the deportation of Rohingya refugees from India by referring to them as a "security threat".

"The Indian government is trying to create a pressure bilaterally and multilaterally on Myanmar to stop the persecution of Rohingya Muslims as well as take back the refugees who have taken shelter in Bangladesh," Nazrul Islam, Hasina's deputy press secretary, quoted Sushma as telling Hasina, while speaking with reporters in Dhaka today.

The Rohingya crisis "is not an issue for Bangladesh only" but is now a "global matter", Sushma told Hasina, according to Islam.

Indian officials familiar with the conversation confirmed that Islam's description of the chat was broadly accurate, though the foreign ministry here refused to comment officially.

An estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees are now in India. The first signs of differences within the government over its approach to the refugee crisis emerged ahead of Modi's visit to Myanmar last week.

Junior home minister Kiren Rijiju publicly asserted that all 40,000 would be deported - including about 18,000 registered with the UN.

But the foreign ministry conceded the humanitarian dimension of the crisis and nudged Myanmar to adopt swiftly a report by an experts' panel headed by a former UN secretary-general that has sought faster expansion of the rights of the Rohingya community.

During Modi's visit too, as the Prime Minister publicly backed Suu Kyi, India had in diplomatic talks conveyed its concern at the outflow of refugees. It had pledged development aid towards displaced members of both the Rohingya and Buddhist communities in Rakhine state, home to the worst clashes.

As the refugee flow into southeast Bangladesh from Rakhine picked up over the past week, Dhaka -- forced by geography into the position of a frontline state in managing the crisis -- made its unhappiness with New Delhi's posture clear.

Bangladesh high commissioner Syed Muazzem Ali met foreign secretary S. Jaishankar on September 9, seeking pressure from India on Myanmar.

Hours later, the Indian foreign office issued a fresh statement, asking Myanmar to handle the refugee crisis with "restraint and maturity". It stopped short of criticising Suu Kyi but publicly admitted that it wasn't fully comfortable with her government's approach.

Bangladesh isn't alone in pressing India to alter its approach to the refugee crisis.

On Monday, the UN's high commissioner on human rights, Zeid bin Ra'ad al-Hussein, criticised India for its plans to deport the 40,000 Rohingya refugees and suggested that such a move may violate India's commitments under international law.

India cited security concerns to justify its plans but did not counter the UN diplomat's contention that a mass deportation may violate international commitments.

"Enforcing laws should not be mistaken for lack of compassion," India's permanent representative to the UN in Geneva said.

But India's efforts at showing compassion on Thursday -- through the relief assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh -- came up against the controversial draft home ministry affidavit that appeared to suggest every Rohingya refugee was a potential security threat.

The Supreme Court is hearing a petition moved by two Rohingya refugees against the planned deportation, and the affidavit was drafted in response to that.

But the home ministry withdrew that draft last night following pressure from the foreign ministry. It is expected to draft a fresh argument for next Monday's scheduled court hearing.