Chakma group flays Kiren Rijiju for his comment on citizenship to Chakma-Hajongs

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMarch 26, 2024

Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI), a platform of Chakma and their neighbouring communities in India, on Tuesday flayed Union minister for earth science Kiren Rijiju for his controversial statement on the citizenship of Chakma-Hajong people in Arunachal Pradesh and said that Rijiju has contradicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and misled the people of Arunachal Pradesh on the citizenship issue.

On Monday, Rijiju said that the Chakmas and Hajongs would be relocated outside the state, a suitable place is being searched for their relocation and they would not be given Indian citizenship in Arunachal Pradesh.

“Kiren Rijiju is contradicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose office had on December 7, 2021, directed the Arunachal Pradesh government to stop illegal census of only the Chakmas and Hajongs for relocation,” CDFI founder Suhas Chakma said in a statement here on Tuesday.

 “Chakmas and Hajongs have been voting in Arunachal Pradesh for the last 20 years after having been given citizenship by birth in the state. There is no political party or government in this country which has the power to remove these Indian citizens outside Arunachal Pradesh against their will in violations of Article 19(d) and Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” Chakma said.

On September 20, 2015, the Supreme Court directed the Centre and the Arunachal Pradesh governments to grant citizenship within three months to Chakmas and Hajongs, who had migrated from Bangladesh in 1964-69 saying that they can’t be discriminated in any manner.

The Chakmas and Hajongs were displaced from the area that became part of East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh) during the construction of the Kaptai Dam and were allowed to be rehabilitated under the decision of the Indian government.

However, the Arunachal Pradesh government was reluctant to grant citizenship to Chakma and Hajong communities even as nine years have passed since the SC directive.

“Making statements contemptuous of the Supreme Court which directed to process citizenship applications of the Chakma Hajong migrants in Arunachal Pradesh may fetch few votes but it does not suit a former Union law minister. If the position is legally sound, Rijiju or the Arunachal Pradesh government or even the Central government can file an affidavit in the Supreme Court to the effect that citizenship applications of the migrants are not being processed because they do not wish to grant citizenship in Arunachal Pradesh. The apex court will deal with the issue by the law,” Chakma further said. 

On April 24, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu announced that he would resolve the Chakma-Hajong problem by distributing them in different states of India as the Chakmas and Hajongs being refugees cannot be permanently settled in the state, which is protected as tribal state under the Constitution of India.

However, Chakma appealed to alala communities to maintain harmony and not to vitiate the peaceful co-existence of the Chakmas and Hajongs and the local communities for electoral gains.