Chakmas of Mizoram on Monday extended solidarity to Chakmas and Hajongs from Arunachal Pradesh by staging a rally and submitting a joint memorandum to Prime minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah seeking the immediate restoration of the residential proof certificate (RPC) issued to the tribes in Arunachal Pradesh.

The RPC is a proof of residence which was used by the two communities to apply for higher studies and jobs under the central government and private companies.

Issuance of the RPCs was first suspended by the BJP-led Arunachal Pradesh government on July 31, 2022, and subsequently cancelled in November last year. The two communities are against any move to issue temporary settlement certificates (TSC) to them.

Hundreds of Chakmas, mostly students, took part in a rally from the Kamalanagar playground to the SDO office in Kamalanagar, half a km apart, with banners and placards seeking restoration of the RPC and urging Modi to “come to the rescue” of the Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal. Later they submitted a joint memorandum to Modi and Shah.

The RPC is a sensitive issue for the Chakmas and Hajongs as well as the indigenous communities which see the two communities as refugees and have always objected to any move that may open the door to citizenship in the frontier state. In this protected area, outsiders, even Indians, need inner-line permits to enter the state.

The indigenous communities fear the refugees may swamp them in the future.

The rally in Kamalanagar, the headquarters of the Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) in Lawngtlai district of Mizoram, was organised jointly by Chakma NGOs — the All India Chakma Students’ Union (AICSU), Young Chakma Association(YCA), Mizoram Chakma Students’ Union (MCSU), Chakma Mahila Samiti (CMS) and the Chakma National Council of India (CNCI). There are about 65,000 Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal.

They fled from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) due to displacement triggered by a dam, and then to escape religious persecution.

They were settled by the Centre in North East Frontier Agency (now Arunachal Pradesh) between 1964 and 1969 to “beef up” security following the 1962 Indo-China war.