ITANAGAR, 27 Aug: Several community-based organizations (CBO) of the Indian Chakmas, led by the Chakma National Council of India (CNCI), have expressed solidarity with the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal in rejecting the alleged plan to relocate them from Arunachal to other state/states by the Arunachal government and the union government, as revealed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu and union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju.
The Chakma CBOs from all over India stated that the supposed plan has left the Chakma community in “utter shock and outraged.”
“Any plan or proposal to resolve the Chakma-Hajong issue of Arunachal Pradesh by displacing them or relocating them to some other state or states as being proposed by the government of Arunachal Pradesh will be disastrous and inhumane,” the CNCI said in a press statement, supported by the All India Chakma Students’ Union, the Rashtriya Chakma Tribal Sangh, the Young Chakma Association, the Mizoram Chakma Students’ Union and the Chakma Mahila Samiti.
They claimed that the Chakmas and Hajongs had been legally settled in Arunachal by the government of India in consultation with the erstwhile NEFA administration (now Arunachal) during 1964-69 and lands were allotted in consultation with the local tribes, which they said “is clearly in consonance with Section 7 of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.”
“They have endured all kinds of hardship through all these 57 years for no fault of theirs. The then leadership of India at the time of partition (August 1947) had failed the Chakma and Hajong minorities and, therefore, the present leadership of the government of India must not fail them again and increase or prolong their sufferings,” the Chakma CBOs said.
“The Supreme Court of India has pronounced its judgment not once but twice in 1996 and 2015 that Chakmas and Hajongs be granted Indian citizenship within the state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is high time now that the government of India complied with the orders of the highest court of this country,” the joint statement said.
They appealed to the people of Arunachal to treat the Chakma-Hajong issue with compassion and end the long saga of sufferings endured by these communities and help them grow and develop in complete harmony and brotherhood with all other communities of the state.
