ITANAGAR, 13 Jan: The People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) has strongly condemned the recent attempts by Chakma and Hajong organisations to “communalise the refugee crisis in the state on religious grounds.”
“The party has gone through the video of the speeches made by certain individuals, especially those representing the two refugee communities, in New Delhi and Diyun, whereby they have claimed that Hindu and Buddhist communities are in danger in Arunachal Pradesh, and that they are being persecuted due to their religious affiliation and ethnicity.
“This claim is absolutely wrong and is being made to arouse animosity against the indigenous tribals of Arunachal Pradesh in the rest of the country, particularly the Hindi belt. People in other parts of the country, particularly in the mainland, should not be misled by such false claims. Rather, it is the indigenous people who have been suffering since last many years due to unprecedented influx of the refugees, which has had a serious effect on the socio-politico demography of the state,” the party said in a release on Friday.
It asked the refugee communities to “refrain from making demands which have a direct bearing on the hosts, ie, the indigenous people of the state.”
“The party is against giving any type of land rights, APST status or residential certificates, citizenship, etc, to both Chakmas and Hajongs within the territory of Arunachal Pradesh. The matter of higher education and central jobs may be worked out in line with other refugees in the country, outside the purview of Arunachal Pradesh, purely on humanitarian grounds,” it said.
Meanwhile, the PPA sought to know when the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal would be resettled.
“Both union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju and Chief Minister Pema Khandu have previously made public statements regarding resettlement and deportation of the refugees from Arunachal Pradesh. The party would like to know from when the proposed resettlement process shall commence.”
“We would like to know whether the statement was made to befool the masses, or are they really serious about resolving the refugee crisis in the state? A full-fledged department of refugee affairs in the state government is the need of the hour, which should purely work towards settlement of the refugee issue, and the proposed department should be answerable to all queries on the issue.
“The matter of deletion of voters belonging to refugee community from the e-roll should also be taken up in the right earnest,” it added.
“While the PPA strongly stands for deportation of all the refugees, including the illegal immigrants present in the state, we would also at the same time stress towards formulation of a comprehensive refugee policy (till their deportation) for both the Chakmass and Hajongs, who were unilaterally settled in the state in the 1960s,” the party said.
