Arunachal: Chakmas protests in New Delhi against racial profiling by Govt, demands immediate cancellation

On 15 August 2021, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Mr Pema Khandu announced that the Chakmas and Hajongs who were settled in the State about 60 years ago will be relocated outside the State and on 5th April 2022, the training of the government enumerators is scheduled to be conducted at Diyun under Changlang district.

The Chakmas and Hajongs led by Arunachal Pradesh Chakma Students Union (APCSU), the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh (CCRHCAP), Arunachal Pradesh Chakma and Hajong Students Association (APCHSA) and Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) protested today at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi against racial profiling of the Chakma and Hajong tribals by Arunachal Pradesh government through a special census only for them. The protestors submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

“In clear violations of the directions of the National Human Rights Commission against the ongoing racial profiling on 24.01.2022, the Arunachal Pradesh State government officials sought to conduct illegal census and the training of the enumerators is supposed to be held today at Diyun. Chakmas and Hajongs shall not participate in any such illegal census.” - stated Mr Rup Singh Chakma, President of the APCSU.

“The Chakmas and Hajongs who had migrated during 1964-1969 are citizens of India as per the Indira-Mujib accord of 1972 and Section 5(1) of the Citizenship Act of 1955. Those who are born in India are citizenship by birth too. The State of Arunachal Pradesh instead of implementing NHRC Vs State of Arunachal Pradesh of 1966 to confer citizenship and enrolling the Chakmas and Hajongs into electoral rolls had started racial profiling of the Chakmas and Hajongs to keep the pot boiling.” – stated Mr Santosh Chakma, General Secretary of the CCRCHAP.

“There is no law in India which can make particular citizens to stand in the queue for census solely based on their Chakma or Hajong ethnic origin and the same is prohibited by Article 14 of the Constitution of India. By seeking to conduct special census targeting, the State of Arunachal Pradesh is destroying the communal harmony and cordial relations between the Chakmas and Hajongs in one hand and the other communities. There is need for immediate interventions from Home Minister to bring some sanity to this organised targeting of the worst victims of the descendants of the partition of India.” - Stated Mr Suhas Chakma, while addressing the protest.

In their memorandum to Home Minister Amit Shah, they urged that the ongoing illegal census of only the Chakma and Hajong people be stopped immediately, as well as the repression of the Chakmas and Hajongs through racial profiling, proper implementation of Supreme Court judgments on the conferment of citizenship, and compliance with the NHRC's directions.