NHRC has done the right thing by directing the Ministry of Home Affairs and Government of Arunachal Pradesh To submit an action taken report against racial profiling and relocation of Chakma and Hajong communities in the northeastern state. They fled their homes in the Chittagong hills in then East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) after losing land for the construction of the Kaptai Dam on the Karnaphuli River in the early 1960s. They had sought refuge in India and settled in relief camps in Arunachal Pradesh. Since then they have been well integrated into the villages in the southern and south-eastern parts of the state. In 2015, the Supreme Court directed the state to grant them citizenship, but this was yet to be implemented. In a 1996 judgment, the Court held that “the life and personal liberty of every Chakma residing within the State shall be protected”. In the light of these orders and noting that most of the Dodge/Hajong Community The members were born in the state and are living peacefully, the Arunachal Pradesh chief minister’s announcement in August 2021, that they would be relocated outside the state and that steps would be taken for a “census” of the communities, was clearly inappropriate. The so-called state-run census would amount to a racial profiling of the two communities which has also been the subject of an anti-nationalist campaign by organizations such as the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union. The issue has not been helped either by the statements made by Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju about the transfer.
It is difficult, but not impossible, for any state government in the Northeast to balance the interests of native tribal communities and legally settled refugees and their progeny. The special rights guaranteed in the Indian Constitution in these states to protect the tribal people, their habitat and their livelihood have sometimes been misinterpreted, coupled with demographic fears that fuel hatred for communities such as the Chakma/Hajong in Arunachal. In favor of racism. State and Mizoram. Unfortunately, political forces have also limited themselves to the use of caste rifts for power and sustenance. Uprooting communities that fled their homeland under pressure and have since settled well in their adopted territories, while contributing to the diversity of culture and economy, would be a violation of their rights and a historical wrong. Will have to repeat. A dialogue between the state government, civil society and Chakma/Hajong communities would go a long way in alleviating concerns in implementing the 2015 Court’s decision, rather than the course currently adopted by Itanagar. Implementation of the NHRC directive should be a step in the process of reversing that course.
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