UKHRUL, SEP 9: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has criticised the Manipur-based Kuki Human Rights Council (KHRC) over its recent letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the United Nations concerning the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in Bordumsa, calling it “baseless, politically motivated and an unwanted interference” in Arunachal Pradesh’s affairs.
Reacting to the letter, AAPSU president Meje Taku said the KHRC had no locus standi to comment on Arunachal Pradesh’s indigenous issues.
“This is purely a matter of Arunachal Pradesh and its indigenous people. It has absolutely nothing to do with some community organisation sitting in Lamka, Churachandpur, in another state. We strongly condemn this attempt to internationalise our internal issue,” he said.
The AAPSU on Tuesday said the SIR is a statutory exercise of the Election Commission of India to revise and verify electoral rolls, and asserted that it has “every democratic right” as a stakeholder to ensure that “no illegal and doubtful names are included in the voter list of the state.”
On the Chakma and Hajong issue, the union said it was not a minority rights issue but a “60-year-old unresolved issue of indigenous survival”. It said the communities were settled in the region by the Government of India on humanitarian grounds between 1964 and 1969.
The AAPSU claimed indigenous tribes in Changlang were “becoming a minority in their own land” and said its opposition was aimed at protecting land, culture and identity under Article 371H and the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
Rejecting the KHRC’s allegation of violent obstruction during the SIR hearings, the AAPSU described its agitation as democratic and peaceful.
“Instead of filing FIRs against our students, the administration should listen to the voice of the indigenous people,” it said.
The union also hit back at the KHRC over its appeal to human rights bodies, asking it to address the situation in Manipur first.
“It is ironic that a council that talks about human rights fails to see the human rights tragedy in its own backyard,” the AAPSU said, referring to the ongoing conflict in Manipur and the displacement of people into relief camps.
“Before preaching equality, justice and freedom to Arunachal, the KHRC should first ensure equality, justice and freedom for their own people. Solve your own house first,” it added.
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The AAPSU further said Arunachal Pradesh would not be a “dumping ground for illegal settlement” and would not allow external forces to dictate its future.
“Arunachal belongs to its indigenous tribes. No amount of letters to the UN or NHRC by any outside organisation can change this historical and constitutional fact,” the union said.
It appealed to the chief election commissioner of India and the state government to complete the SIR process transparently without yielding to “external pressure tactics”, and urged the people of Arunachal Pradesh to remain united in protecting the state’s indigenous rights.
