The government is in a cleft stick over Chakma and Hajong refugees, who came to India from East Pakistan in 1964-1969, with most eventually resettled in NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh). The voluble MoS home, Kiren Rijiju, an Arunachal MP, is doing all kinds of twists and turns to not fall foul of the Supreme Court (that in 2015 directed India give citizenship to the displaced people who had lived here half a century), given last week’s decision by his government — announced by home minister Rajnath Singh — to grant the Chakma-Hajong Indian citizenship, and volatile public opinion in Arunachal which wants them moved from their state.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union’s shutdown call Tuesday, which evoked a good response, appears to have unnerved Mr Rijiju, who swiftly blamed the Congress — the usual BJP escape route when in a bind — saying it shouldn’t have allowed them into Arunachal back in the 1960s. But in 1997, the Rajya Sabha petitions committee, chaired by Sushma Swaraj, recommended not only giving Chakmas and Hajongs citizenship but also ST status. In 2004, the Atal Behari Vajpayee government conferred voting rights on them.
Mr Rijiju now says the government will tell the Supreme Court its order is not implementable. It’s not clear under whose authority this stand, contradicting Rajnath Singh, was taken. It’s also not clear why the government chose to announce it would extend citizenship to the refugees when a curative petition lies before the Supreme Court from sections of Arunachal residents, urging the court to amend its order. The petition comes up October 1. Surely the government could have waited.
