Chakma National Council of India (CNCI), the apex organisation spearheading the rights of the Chakmas in India, has urged the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Pema Khandu to stop his malicious propaganda of projecting all Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh as criminals and urged him to take the lead in solving the issue once and for all.
The CNCI also took strong objection to the statement of Khandu who on several occasions during the recent Assembly session termed the Chakmas as criminals and said that the community has been unquestionably loyal to India before and after the Partition despite numerous suffering the community had undergone due to partition and decision of the then Indian leaders.
“Mongering hate towards the Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh across the State and categorising them as criminals is now long past its sell-by-date, and it would really be irrational of the Chief Minister to think that this agenda of his would really be of any help in the present time and also in the future to his overall cause of solving the vexed Chakma issue,” Prahland Chakma, Vice President of CNCI.
“Had the Chief Minister stood by its oath of Raj Dharma , he would have easily seen that the Chakma community has been one of the most peaceful and peace-loving communities in the country,” said Chakma.
He said that the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, in order to have his support in implementing Tibetan Refugee Policy (TRP) in Arunachal warned the people not to compare the Chakmas Refugees and Tibetian because according to him Chakmas are criminals while Tibetian refugees are peaceful.
“Several politicians and students leaders with selfish interests have unfairly accused the Chakma community of illegal forest area encroachment. However their attention is never drawn to how it must feel to be swept away in the fury of the Noa-Dihing River and become homeless and landless in a night. Every year Chakmas has been losing vast areas of their land in the flood caused by the Noa Dihing River but their persistent requests to rehabilitate them and construct fences has fallen on deaf ears,” he pointed out.
It may be mentioned here that the citizenship issue of the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh has lingered on for so long. While the Supreme Court had on 2015 directed the Central Government and Arunachal Pradesh Government to finalize conferment of citizenship rights to over one lakh Chakma and Hajongs in the State, the State Government opposed the move saying that it would change the demography of the tribal State.
“It is high time the Chief Minister takes a lead and solves the issue once for and all by following the Central Government in granting the citizenship with all its legitimate rights as per the Honourable Supreme Court Verdict,” he added.