Please don’t turn Arunachal Pradesh into Kashmir, plead Congress leaders

Blaming the BJP for lighting a divisive fire in Arunachal Pradesh, a Congress delegation on Monday submitted a memorandum to MHA demanding imposition of President’s Rule in the state.

The BJP had announced a ‘surprise new year gift’ to the people and forced a High Powered Committee headed by the state’s forest minister to submit a report recommending Permanent Residence Certificates to non-Arunachal tribes settled in a few districts of the state. The Government also announced that it would present the issue before the Assembly last week.

The government’s decision to grant PRCs to those belonging to the non-APST communities such as Moran and Deuri among others in Namsai and Changlang districts, however, angered the people and triggered large scale violence in Itanagar with mobs setting the deputy chief minister’s house and a shopping mall owned by the forest minister on fire. Curfew was imposed, Internet was shut down and an unconfirmed number of people are said to have been killed by security forces.

“The situation in Arunachal Pradesh is very grim,” said Luizinho Faleiro and PCC chief Takam Sanjoy and blamed the BJP Government for taking a hasty decision without due diligence and consultation with all stakeholders.

Rijiju, however, tweeted that it was the Congress which wanted PRC and was misguiding the people. He did not explain though why the BJP Government in the state was in a hurry to grant PRC. Rijiju however also blamed the state government for its failure to communicate to the people that the proposal had been dropped.

Luizinho said while briefing the media in Delhi, “The same thing had happened with the Citizenship Amendment Bill. When you try to impose something without discussion, without dialogue, without taking the stakeholders into confidences this is the result…”

Wondering why Rijiju is not there in his own constituency of Itanagar, the Congress leaders demanded a judicial inquiry into the firing by security forces.

Protesters on Friday night alone torched at least 60 vehicles in front of the secretariat, Indira Gandhi Park and Dorjee Khandu Convention Hall. They also burnt pandals and musical instruments of various bands which had arrived to perform during the Arunachal Pradesh Statehood Day celebrations. Vehicles were also set on fire at Dorjee Khandu Convention Hall where the first Itanagar International Film Festival was under way.

PCC chief Takam Sanjoy pointed out that the BJP Government in the state had constituted the High Powered Committee to deliberate on PRC. But when the report was not submitted even after a year, the chief minister and deputy chief minister unilaterally announced the ‘surprise new year gift’ in the two districts. The committee was coerced into submitting a hurried report and the cabinet met and approved it.

Responding to Kiren Rijiju, the PCC chief pointed out that he is not in the government and he did not constitute the committee or played any role in cabinet approval. Then how could Rijiju blame the Congress, he wondered.

Former chief minister Nabam Tuki said the situation in the state was tense, law and order machinery had failed and people were feeling insecure. The Government must reach out to the people instead of talking to them through social media, he said. Trouble was spreading from Itanagar to the districts, he added and demanded immediate steps by the Centre.