Arunachal Chakmas, Hajongs protest against residential certificates’ suspension

Several organisations representing the Chakma and Hajong community in Arunachal Pradesh staged a protest on Saturday against the state government's recent decision to suspend the process to issue Residential Proof Certificates (RPC) to them.

The BJP government in the state on July 29 suspended the RPCs for the Chakmas and Hajongs following a demand by All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU). The students' body had called for a "general strike" if the RPC were not suspended. AAPSU demands that the Chakmas and Hajongs should be settled outside Arunachal Pradesh as they are "outsiders" and pose a threat to identity to other ethnic communities.

"The denial of the RPCs is nothing but continuation of racial profiling of the Chakmas and Hajongs. This is not something allowed in a country governed by the rule of law,” stated Krishna Chakma, spokesperson of the Chakma Hajong Rights Alliance, which is leading the protest at Diyung in Changlang district.

“The first victim of the denial of the RPCs are job seekers who are students. They are citizens of India and often join recruitment in the army. The same is being denied through suspension of the RPCs as the recruitment drive into the Indian Army has started. This is being done to deny existence of the Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh and finally push them out of the state,"said Rup Singh Chakma, president of the Arunachal Pradesh Chakma Students' Union.

Arunachal Pradesh at present has nearly 65,000 Chakma and Hajong people. They were settled between 1964 and 1969 in Changlang and Papum Pare district following an ethnic clash and a dam disaster in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of erstwhile East Pakistan (present Bangladesh). But tribal groups in Arunachal Pradesh have been agitating for years against their settlement. The issue triggered tensions in Arunachal Pradesh in the past.

Fresh worries gripped the Chakma and Hajong community after Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on August 15 last year said that they would be relocated outside Arunachal Pradesh. This is despite the fact that the National Human Rights Commission had asked the state government in 1966 to offer Indian citizenship to the Chakmas and Hajongs. The Supreme Court had in 2015 asked the state government to offer Indian citizenship to them.

The Chakma and Hajong groups have rejected the demand for resettlement outside Arunachal Pradesh and demand citizenship to the two communities. Chakmas are mainly Buddhists and Hajongs are Hindus.