ITANAGAR, Aug 11: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has demanded that the state government strongly oppose any possible attempt to alter the state’s territorial jurisdiction and administration under the “proposed accord between the government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland – Isak Muivah.”
The union asked the same of all 60 legislators, the three MPs, and all political parties of the state.
The AAPSU’s statement comes in the wake of reports emerging from various news and media outlets regarding the deadline given by the prime minister’s office for culmination of the ongoing talks between the central government and the NSCN (IM) within September this year.
The AAPSU strongly reiterated its previous stance that “the proposed agreement between the government of India and the NSCN (IM) to resolve the decades-old Naga problem should not affect Arunachal and its people in any way.”
“The union is very much aware of the NSCN (IM) faction’s vision of a Nagalim or Greater Nagaland but there are no ‘Nagas’ in Arunachal Pradesh,” it said.
“We have on record always objected to their vested-interested designs. All tribals, including Nocte, Wanchos, Tutsas, Tangsas, etc, inhabiting the state are Arunachalees and Indians,” the AAPSU stated.
The union also urged the Centre to stand by the assurance given previously “by current Nagaland governor and interlocutor RN Ravi, when a team of the AAPSU, led by its then president Kamta Lapung and then general secretary Biru Nasi, had called on him in 2015.”
The union also reminded that the central government had assured that consultations would be held with the government of Arunachal as well as various stakeholders in the state before the final draft of the accord is prepared.
It said the current AAPSU team also submitted representations regarding the matter to President Ram Nath Kovind during his maiden visit to the state, and to the then union home minister Rajnath Singh, besides numerous representations to the state government and the governor.
While the AAPSU welcomed the initiatives of successive governments to resolve the issue, it also made it clear that “the indigenous people of Arunachal Pradesh will strongly oppose any attempts to change the territorial jurisdiction of the state or any kind of administrative, political or other interventions while reaching final solution to the seven-decade-old insurgency problem in Nagaland.”
