Chakmas go on unity mission, The Telegraph, 29 April 2004

Chakmas go on unity mission

SAMIR K. PURKAYASTHA

Guwahati, April 28: A delegation of Chakma leaders today reached Arunachal Pradesh to build bridges with the state’s indigenous communities, whose animosity towards the refugee tribe has increased since it earned the right to vote. The Chakma team comprises members of the Committee for Citizenship Rights of Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh, which operates from New Delhi. Its president, Subimal Bikash Chakma, said here before leaving for Diyun in Changlang district that the delegation would hold parleys with representatives of socio-political organisations of the state to remove the “misunderstanding” caused by the Election Commission’s decision to allow Chakmas and Hajongs to vote. The reconciliation bid came in the wake of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) calling a 12-hour bandh in Itanagar on Friday. The Chakma citizenship forum has already opened a channel for negotiations with apolitical organisations. “We have held preliminary talks with some influential social organisations of Arunachal Pradesh and I am hopeful we will be able to amicably sort out the problem,” Subimal Chakma said. Further discussions are expected to centre on reconciliation and security arrangements for the Chakma and Hajong electorate. “Chakma and Hajong voters have not been trained to use the electronic voting machine. We are also concerned about security arrangements for voters from our community at Chowkham in Lohit district,” Subimal Chakma said. Of the 1,497 Chakmas and Hajongs who have been granted the right to franchise — about 15,000 had submitted applications — 323 are in Chowkham. The rest are settled in Diyun. Describing the Election Commission’s decision as a “historic” one, Subimal Chakma said each of those who had been included in the electoral rolls would exercise the right to vote judiciously. The Election Commission sifted through the applications and cleared 1,497 of these at the behest of the Supreme Court. In its 1996 judgment, the apex court directed the commission to initiate the process of granting citizenship to those members of the communities who were born in India. Nearly 60,000 Hajongs and Chakmas have been residing in Arunachal Pradesh since being relocated there by the Centre in the Sixties. The AAPSU and other organisations have been demanding that the refugees be resettled elsewhere. Subimal Chakma ruled out the possibility of accepting any such suggestion. “How can we accept that? It will be inhuman to displace 60,000 people from a place they have been residing in for four decades now.” He said indigenous communities were needlessly projecting that Chakmas and Hajongs would outnumber them one day. “Such apprehension is not justified. Our growth rate in the last four decades has not been alarming by any stretch of the imagination.”