Arunachal Pradesh protest against granting citizenship to Chakma, Hajong refugees

The people of Arunachal Pradesh have expressed their displeasure over the Centre's willingness to grant citizenship to Chakma and Hajong refugees.

Itanagar, Sep 19: At a time when the Narendra Modi government has justified its position to the Supreme Court for the possible deportation of around 40,000 Rohingya refugees to their home country in Myanmar, where they are currently facing violence and persecution, another refugee crisis is boiling in the border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The people of Arunachal Pradesh have strongly contested the Centre's willingness to honour the 2015 decision of the Supreme Court to grant citizenship to Chakma and Hajong refugees in the state.

The state chief minister Pema Khandu on Monday voiced the anxiety of the people of the state on granting citizenship to Chakma and Hajong refugees in Arunachal Pradesh.

In a letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, Khandu said the matter was of deep emotional concern and his state was not ready to accept any infringement of the constitutional protection given to the tribals of the state, an official release said.

He said Arunachal Pradesh, with its unique history, is governed by a special act--The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. Section 2 of the act prohibits all citizens of India or any class of such citizens from going beyond such line without a pass issued under the hand and seal of an officer authorised with such function.

"Section 7 of the regulation says it shall not be lawful for any person, not being a native of the district, comprised in the preamble of this regulation, to acquire any interest in land or the product of land beyond the said inner line...," he said.

The letter said Arunachal Pradesh is a predominantly tribal state and the Constitution gives special protection rights to the people of the state. "Therefore, as mentioned by me in our meeting recently, I reiterate that the people of my state are not ready to accept any infringement on the constitutional protection bestowed on our tribals and want to ensure that the ethnic composition and the special rights enjoyed by the tribes of the state are safeguarded at all cost," Khandu said in the letter.

He solicited the Union home minister's support in protecting the tribal rights and securing the sanctity of the inner-line permit (ILP) in the state, the release added.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju said the Centre would urge the Supreme Court to modify its order of granting citizenship to the Chakma-Hajong refugees so that rights of indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh are not diluted.

"There is no decision of the government of India to grant citizenship. It is the order of the Supreme Court. We are trying to tell the honourable Supreme Court that giving Chakmas and Hajongs the same rights as Arunachalis is not acceptable to us. People of Arunachal must appreciate that for the first time the Centre has not agreed....So we are appealing to the apex court to modify this order...to ensure that rights of the indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh are protected," Rijiju told reporters at Naharlagun helipad on Sunday.

The All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) has declared a statewide dawn-to-dusk strike on Tuesday, opposing the Centre's decision to grant citizenship to the refugees.

Rijiju's remarks come days after he said a "middle ground" would be chosen so that the 2015 Supreme Court order to grant citizenship to Chakma-Hajong refugees could be honoured.

He said the population of Chakma and Hajong refugees has risen to over 64,000, when originally 2,748 families comprising 14,888 people were settled between 1964 to 1969 in the Bordumsa-Diyun areas in Changlang district and Kokila of Papum Pare district.

The Chakma-Hajong refugee issue has evoked strong resentment in the state with many organisations and political parties saying that granting of citizenship to the refugees would distort the social fabric of the state.

Chakmas and Hajongs were originally residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in erstwhile East Pakistan who left their homeland when it was submerged by the Kaptai dam project in the 1960s.

The Union minister said Khandu had said proper enumeration would be done so that they (Chakma-Hajong) cannot encroach upon land in Arunachal Pradesh and the rights of the people.

The state government has moved the Election Commission, requesting it to delete the names of refugees from the voter list, he said.

In the past, Arunachal Pradesh has witnessed several protests and rallies demanding the deportation of Chakma and Hajong refugees from its soil. On their part, the refugees allege that they have faced physical intimidation, violence and discrimination at the hands of the locals in the state earlier, however, they have no other option but to stay put in Arunachal Pradesh.

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