Trip to Itanagar-in the midst of political crisis

I would say, it is the least right time to make trip to a political hub when political crisis was looming large over it, but I had to leave all my work behind (posting at the blog included) to head to Itanagar for a short trip and it didn’t seemed to me at all that the state’s political hub was in political turmoil, when I reached Itanagar. There wasn’t any hint of political unrest. All I could see was some activity at the Raj Bhawan where new Governor was to be sworn in that day. And at a simple function later that day, K. Sankaranarayanan was sworn in as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh.

However, the incident at Akasdeep Shopping Complex at Ganga Market the next day indicated that the state was indeed in a deep political turmoil and it made me ponder how the politics makes people stoop so low as to term fellow brethren a foreigner.

It so happened that some group of youngsters (was it Gegong Apang’s supporter) gathered at the Shopping Complex and burnt effigy of Dorjee Khandu, who along with other MLA’s and Ministers were camping at Delhi to persuade the party high command for change in leadership, demanding that they would never accept a foreigner to take control of state affairs and threatened to shoot himself if Chief Ministership was given to person other than those from Tani group. I care a dime, if Apang or Khandu or for that matter anybody else from that stock is made C.M. as it would be same as serving same old stale food in a different platter. But the incident has left questions in my mind.

When China is claiming Tawang, is it right to term fellow brethren a foreigner, may be just for a little political leverage? Does Arunachal comprise only of the area inhibited by Tani groups? Would the person really shoot himself if Dorjee Khandu made the C.M.? (I bet he wouldn’t)

Well, leaving all the unanswered questions behind I thought of visiting the Center for Buddhism Studies at Siddharta Vihar, Itanagar for peace of mind. It was soothing to find Lamas sitting around chorten immersed in their own spiritual world without a hint of what’s going on politically around them.

After spending around hour and a half I headed to State Musuem. Having visited these places, I would recommend, those visiting Itanagar to visit these two places besides other place of interest at Itanagar like Ganga Lake (Gekir Sinyi), Itafort-around which the capital was named Itanagar, etc. Later in the day, sec 144 of Cr. PC was imposed at the capital for a month.

The next day on 9th April, under the central observer P.R. Das Munshi and Oscar Fernandes, Apang stepped down from the post of C.M. and Dorjee Khandu took charge of the state with the vow to root out corruption, revive APEX Bank and making PDS effective.

Now that new C.M. has been instated, I don’t know if sec 144 of Cr. PC has been lifted at Itanagar or not or if the person who had threatened to shoot himself if Dorjee Khandu was made C.M. has shot himself or not but it feels good to be back to Home Sweet Home