All-party to discuss Chakma, Hajong citizenship issue

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has convened an all-party meeting here on June 19 to discuss the issue of granting of citizenship to Chakma and Hajong refugees, an official communique said today.
Representatives of all political parties are expected to attend the meeting and discuss at length all relevant issues pertaining to granting of citizenship rights to Chakmas and Hajongs and arrive at a consensus, officials said.
The cabinet meeting held on August 24 last year had decided to hold an all-party meeting on the issue.
The all-party meeting has been called after All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) threatened to launch an indefinite agitation against the state government if it failed to convene it by June 10.

AAPSU, the apex students union in the state, had on May 27 resolved that all the 59 MLAs and three MPs of the state must attend the meeting.
It had submitted a memorandum to Khandu on May 29 asking him to convene the meeting on the citizenship issue on or before June 10.

AAPSU has been spearheading the movement against the Chakmas and Hajong refugees since 1990 as it fears that citizenship to the refugees would reduce the indigenous tribal communities to a minority and rob them of the opportunities they enjoy.
Chakmas and Hajongs entered India through the then Lushai Hills district of Assam (now Mizoram). While some of them stayed back with the Chakmas already residing in the district, the Centre had moved a majority of them to the erstwhile North East Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh.

In 2015, the Supreme Court gave the Centre a deadline to confer citizenship to these refugees within three months. The Arunachal government then had challenged the apex court's order in vain.
Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had also recently raised the citizenship issue at a meet chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.