'Stop racial profiling of Chakmas,' CDFI tells Arunachal Pradesh govt

The Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) urged the Arunachal Pradesh government to stop 'racial profiling' of Chakmas in the state. “Conducting a census of Chakmas alone is nothing but an act of racial profiling which is a clear violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ratified by India," the Foundation said in a statement.

New Delhi: The Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) on Monday sought the intervention of Arunachal Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein to stop 'racial profiling' of Chakmas in the state. This comes a day ahead of the Deputy CM's visit to Diyun in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, mostly inhabited by people belonging to the Chakma community.

“Officials of the Arunachal Pradesh government have been conducting a census of Chakmas under Changlang district. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Bordumsa, Changlang has written a letter dated October 1 to the village headmen of Bijoypur I, II and III under Bordumsa Sub Division of Changlang district to submit “a self-declared population detail of their respective villages with original and migrated settlers in the specimen format” in order to “prepare a consolidated data of all Chakma people residing in Bordumsa Division", CDFI founder Suhas Chakma said in a statement.

“Conducting a census of Chakmas alone is nothing but an act of racial profiling which is a clear violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ratified by India," he said.

“The Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh are citizens of India. Because of the discriminatory policies and practices of the state government, their citizenship applications have not been processed in the last 25 years in contempt of the Supreme Court judgements while those who are citizens by birth under the Citizenship Act, 1955 are not included in the electoral rolls. There is no law or logic to conduct a census of only one community," he further said.

The Foundation stated that the population growth rate of each community and inter-community marriages in the Changlang district speak of different reality but it is only the Chakmas with the lowest population growth rate who are being singled out.

“If the state government wants to conduct a census, it must be conducted for the entire state; irrespective of caste, creed or religion. But, the decision to conduct census of Chakmas alone is illegal and unconstitutional and amounts to racial profiling," Suhas said.

The CDF1 also sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Kandhu and RSS chief Mohan Bhagat on the issue.