ITANAGAR, 14 Jul: Various political parties in Arunachal Pradesh have written to the President of India, drawing his attention to the recent Kimin fiasco and requested his intervention for a satisfactory clarification from the Centre on the whole episode.
Narrating how the BRO renamed Kimin of Arunachal Pradesh as Bilgarh and showed it as a part of Assam during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s Kimin-Potin and various other road inauguration programme, handled by BRO in Kimin on 17 June, the parties said that “the central government should come clean on its stance vis-a-vis relation with China on the border issue in Arunachal Pradesh.”
The letter, sent through the governor of Arunachal Pradesh, has been written by the People’s Party of Arunachal, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee, the Janta Dal-Secular and the Janata Dal-United.
They said the incident happened in the very presence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu and then union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju.
“Even after the inauguration, the defence minister tweeted: ‘The programme was held in Assam’, which has triggered anger and hurt the sentiments of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. It prompted many organizations to file FIR against the BRO and the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh; even many organizations are seeking NIA probe into the incident,” the letter said.
Also informing the president about how the BRO had entrusted the Assam Police with the task of security arrangements for the defence minister during his visit, by keeping the Arunachal Pradesh Police and administration in the dark, the parties sought clarification
from the Assam Government on why it had actively participated in the event by deploying its police and administrative personnel for security and protocol duties.
On the long-standing boundary problem between Arunachal and Assam, the parties said in the letter that the central government should explicitly lay down its policy for resolution of the interstate boundary issue.
