The Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) has urged the Arunachal Pradesh government to stop “racial profiling of the Chakmas”.
The CDFI has urged Arunachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Chowna Mein to intervene against “racial profiling of the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh by conducting illegal and unconstitutional census of ‘ONLY THE CHAKMAS’ in the state”.
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“Conducting census of ‘ONLY THE CHAKMAS’ is nothing but an act of racial profiling in clear violation of the Article 14 of the Constitution of India and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ratified by India,” stated Suhas Chakma, founder of the CDFI.
Suhas Chakma added: “The Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh are citizens of India even though because of the discriminatory policies and practices of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh, their citizenship applications have not been processed in the last 25 years in contempt of the Supreme Court judgments while those who are citizens by birth under the Citizenship Act, 1955 are not included into the electoral rolls. There is no law or logic to conduct census of only one community.”
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CDFI stated that “if the State of Arunachal Pradesh wants to conduct a census, it must conduct for the entire State for all irrespective of caste, creed or religion. But, the decision to conduct census of ‘ONLY THE CHAKMAS’ is illegal and unconstitutional and amounts to racial profiling.”
The Chakma body’s appeal to the Arunachal Pradesh government comes just ahead of deputy CM Chowna Mein’s visit of Chakma dominated areas in Diyun on Tuesday.
The CDFI further sought the intervention of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Kandhu and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.