What's still cooking?

Amidst the heat of intrusion claims and denials, the Indian Army invites the local media persons of Arunachal Pradesh for Indo-China Border Personnel Meeting and shows there exists a good camaraderie between their Chinese counterparts, exchange gifts, raise toast and do photo-session. Something fishy? The Arunachal Times reports-

"Close on the heels of alleged Chinese intrusion into Arunachal Pradesh recently and resultant heat and dust raised over the issue even rocking the Parliament, both India and China today convened yet another border personnel meeting (BPM) braving chilly weather and tough terrains along the frontiers to further knot the age old relationship.

[….]

The meeting was an indication of how both the neighbours have developed close relations over a period of time and strengthened the bonds of friendship and camaraderie despite all odds, which speaks volumes for the growing trust and faith between the border troops deployed in the sector.

The BPM commenced with the Indian delegation receiving their Chinese counterparts at the 'Heap of Stones' along the LAC, followed by a formal interaction between them. The Indian delegation was headed by Brig. Sanjay Kulkarni, while Colonel Zhang Wei Guo headed the Chinese side.

In their messages, both the sides were of the opinion that the two nations should continue to strengthen the bonds of friendship while maintaining peace and tranquility along the border. The event included among others exchange of gifts from both sides while raising several toasts amidst cheers remained its hallmark."

I wonder, if the BPM was just to show how the border personnel shares good camaraderie, then why local media alone was invited, why not others? Was it an attempt to make people of Arunachal think that 'Mahaol Thik Hai' (everything is alright) at the border, no incursion or occupation by Chinese troops at all?

What's more amusing is that though the army denied any incursion or occupation, an Indian Parliamentary delegation would be arriving at the border- the reason of which, the army says, is clueless about. Can you believe?

"Addressing the media persons immediately after the BPM, Brig. Kulkarni nullified the baseless reports, saying that perfect harmony existed between the two nations. His clarification came at the backdrop of allegations about China occupying 20 km of Indian territory in Tawang sector and 8 km in Taksing in Upper Subansiri District.

Ironically, in sharp contrast to their contentions, Brig. Kulkarni however admitted that an Indian Parliamentary delegation would be arriving here tomorrow.

Surprisingly, the said delegation has sidelined all the three MP's of this frontier state drawing flak from Lok Sabha MP Kiren Rijiju, who would raise the matter at the highest forum.

[…]

Though Brig Kulkarni feigned ignorance of the trip and said probably it was a regular exercise, but such a trip is neither a regular one nor can not be arranged without the knowledge of the army."

-Source the Arunachal Times

If everything is alright at the border as said by army, I fail to understand why the parliamentarian delegates are visiting the border and that too without the parliamentarian of this state ? Why doesn't New Delhi want to take the people of Arunachal into confidence about this whole boundary issue? What's cooking?

DUMPED, FORGOTTEN

-By Roto Chobin

Ziro; once a picturesque town in the valley is undergoing a major transmutation. It is now being smothered by a deepening layer of plastic trash and household waste. The drains are choked with carcasses, plastic bags, biscuit wrappers, drink and detergents bottles, and myriad of bottle caps which induce flood [sic] at ya-dee baa lya (Hao po lyang), in particular, during rainy season. And every road has become the ad hoc sites where the garbage is simply jettisoned, creating a mire and stink all around, besides being breeding grounds for diseases. It reflects not only our retarded mindset but also gives an impression to outsider that no educated person lives in this valley.

The people are aware when they toss away the garbage carelessly that it creates more harm than good. Needless to say, it affects our health and hygiene. Even so, the amount of filth is growing day after day in the housing estate, like engineer colony, hilltop, Para line and so forth. Even in the vicinity of town, plastic wrappers of different shape, size and color stubbornly make their presence felt. To prove the point, you’ve to walk one kilometer away from Hao po lyang or en route to Itanagar where the waste materials, collected from market place just dumped there to putrefy and greet every tourist who visits Ziro. Besides; if observed carefully, you will find that every household dispose more than a kilogram of waste (mostly polythene bags) everyday on an average and, at this rate, our town will soon be buried under mountains of synthetic waste in a decade or two. And more importantly, how can we ignore the highly toxic waste that disposed by medical unit of Ziro without much thought? The foul smell emanating from burning the waste material in medical compound is a cause for concern. Interestingly, even our very own capital Itanagar is in the grip of slipshod. While passing through Karsingsa, a familiar scene caught my attention - garbage shucked off from town was piling up near Karsingsa. I’m afraid it won’t take too long when this ‘Sinking Zone’ will be identified as ‘Stinking Zone’. AS I proceed to Naharlagun; with all the haphazard building structure and trash accumulating at many loci, the town looked sloppier than ever before.

A decade ago, when the Pepsico and Coca Cola Company had still not penetrated into the market of Arunachal Pradesh, the town was uncontaminated and more manageable. In other words, I blame these companies amongst other for littering and dumping non bio-degradable stuff in our compounds. They are so happy and engross in making profit and hauling their products at every nook and corner that they forget about recycling. Just printing “Do Not Litter” at the label is not enough. If they have any regard for environment, they need to build a recycling plant along with bottling plant. Would someone tell the big companies that flora and fauna including us, the human race survive when we sustain our environment?

Above all, the detached attitude of an individual towards civic responsibilities makes the matter from bad to worse. There is hardly a person who really concern about the environment degradation. The people of Ziro may find time to indulge themselves on anything but cleanliness. Given the opportunity, they will not hesitate to get rid of their junk by thrusting it to neighbor’s yard. It is a bit ironic while the whole town including our front yard and backyard is unpleasantly malodorous; most of the people still sashay in most fashionable attire as if they were competing with the people at Fifth Avenue in New York, Bond Street in London and Malls in Hong Kong. It is hard to believe this entire glitzy facade behind which lays squalor and incredible stolidity for cleanliness.

Some years back the Authorities at Ziro tried a pathetic attempt to ban the use of polythene bags, but without a stringent implementation of rules and regulations, the ban died the quiet death. Subsequently, the poly bags returned to the market with a vengeance, allowing some pro-ban to grumble at the authorities’ incapability and inefficiency. To tackle core problems such as this, the authority needs to launch a sensitization programme to transform the people into guardians, rather than predators. They should also promote pragmatic programmes where even a primary school student will learn to regard the civic obligation.

I reckon, no matter how hard one may try to make aware the people from their slipshod they will keep hurling their trash to neighbour’s yard just to keep theirs clean. And by the time the people will experience an awakening, our soul-nourishing, eye-catching valley may lapse into an ugly and neglected part.

DUMPED, FORGOTTEN

-By Roto Chobin

Ziro; once a picturesque town in the valley is undergoing a major transmutation. It is now being smothered by a deepening layer of plastic trash and household waste. The drains are choked with carcasses, plastic bags, biscuit wrappers, drink and detergents bottles, and myriad of bottle caps which induce flood [sic] at ya-dee baa lya (Hao po lyang), in particular, during rainy season. And every road has become the ad hoc sites where the garbage is simply jettisoned, creating a mire and stink all around, besides being breeding grounds for diseases. It reflects not only our retarded mindset but also gives an impression to outsider that no educated person lives in this valley.

The people are aware when they toss away the garbage carelessly that it creates more harm than good. Needless to say, it affects our health and hygiene. Even so, the amount of filth is growing day after day in the housing estate, like engineer colony, hilltop, Para line and so forth. Even in the vicinity of town, plastic wrappers of different shape, size and color stubbornly make their presence felt. To prove the point, you’ve to walk one kilometer away from Hao po lyang or en route to Itanagar where the waste materials, collected from market place just dumped there to putrefy and greet every tourist who visits Ziro. Besides; if observed carefully, you will find that every household dispose more than a kilogram of waste (mostly polythene bags) everyday on an average and, at this rate, our town will soon be buried under mountains of synthetic waste in a decade or two. And more importantly, how can we ignore the highly toxic waste that disposed by medical unit of Ziro without much thought? The foul smell emanating from burning the waste material in medical compound is a cause for concern. Interestingly, even our very own capital Itanagar is in the grip of slipshod. While passing through Karsingsa, a familiar scene caught my attention - garbage shucked off from town was piling up near Karsingsa. I’m afraid it won’t take too long when this ‘Sinking Zone’ will be identified as ‘Stinking Zone’. AS I proceed to Naharlagun; with all the haphazard building structure and trash accumulating at many loci, the town looked sloppier than ever before.

A decade ago, when the Pepsico and Coca Cola Company had still not penetrated into the market of Arunachal Pradesh, the town was uncontaminated and more manageable. In other words, I blame these companies amongst other for littering and dumping non bio-degradable stuff in our compounds. They are so happy and engross in making profit and hauling their products at every nook and corner that they forget about recycling. Just printing “Do Not Litter” at the label is not enough. If they have any regard for environment, they need to build a recycling plant along with bottling plant. Would someone tell the big companies that flora and fauna including us, the human race survive when we sustain our environment?

Above all, the detached attitude of an individual towards civic responsibilities makes the matter from bad to worse. There is hardly a person who really concern about the environment degradation. The people of Ziro may find time to indulge themselves on anything but cleanliness. Given the opportunity, they will not hesitate to get rid of their junk by thrusting it to neighbor’s yard. It is a bit ironic while the whole town including our front yard and backyard is unpleasantly malodorous; most of the people still sashay in most fashionable attire as if they were competing with the people at Fifth Avenue in New York, Bond Street in London and Malls in Hong Kong. It is hard to believe this entire glitzy facade behind which lays squalor and incredible stolidity for cleanliness.

Some years back the Authorities at Ziro tried a pathetic attempt to ban the use of polythene bags, but without a stringent implementation of rules and regulations, the ban died the quiet death. Subsequently, the poly bags returned to the market with a vengeance, allowing some pro-ban to grumble at the authorities’ incapability and inefficiency. To tackle core problems such as this, the authority needs to launch a sensitization programme to transform the people into guardians, rather than predators. They should also promote pragmatic programmes where even a primary school student will learn to regard the civic obligation.

I reckon, no matter how hard one may try to make aware the people from their slipshod they will keep hurling their trash to neighbour’s yard just to keep theirs clean. And by the time the people will experience an awakening, our soul-nourishing, eye-catching valley may lapse into an ugly and neglected part.

Whose Passport?

China says Arunachalees are Chinese nationals, India says Arunachalees are Indian but never seem to challenge the claim.

I'm bit confused. Would anyone tell me whose passport should we use? In case...

Did I heard, Republic of A..........???

Whose Passport?

China says Arunachalees are Chinese nationals, India says Arunachalees are Indian but never seem to challenge the claim.

I'm bit confused. Would anyone tell me whose passport should we use? In case...

Did I heard, Republic of A..........???

Do you blog about Arunachal?

In my search for blog on Arunachal, I came across this beautiful photo blog by Sonam and ever since, I was wondering how many of us, Arunachalee, seriously or casually, blog. I tried to find the fellow bloggers but couldn’t make much headway. May be there aren't as many as I thought or may be there are, but eluding me from my search. Or may be, I might have used the wrong key-words. But even then, what I feel is there are bloggers out there - who are from Arunachal or who blogs exclusively about Arunachal - but eluding me. So, I thought of compiling an Arunachalee blogger listing to keep track of fellow bloggers and I need your help in doing so.

So, if you are blogger from Arunachal (physical location doesn't matter) who blogs about anything on universe or if you are a blogger (doesn't matter if you are not from Arunachal) and blog exclusively about Arunachal or if you are not a blogger but happens to come across blogs on Arunachal, do submit your blog (for bloggers) or suggest the link (for who doesn't blog) at arunachaldiary[at]gmail[dot]com giving the following details:

1. Name of the blog
2. URL
3. What's it about
4. Your Location

Your blog will be listed here.

DREE Football Tourney -Prize Money enhanced

Enhanced! I guess normalized would be much appropriate and here I'm, as promised, with the updates.

I was not wrong when I speculated in my earlier post if the teams/clubs would turn up for registration to take part in the much awaited event of the year-the DREE Football Tourney. The reason being the prize money of INR 10,000/-, not lucrative enough to vie for. And the teams/clubs indeed contemplated taking part in the football tourney organized by HDFCC (Hong Dree Festival Celebration Committee) instead, where the prize money is INR 12,000/-. But, good sense has prevailed over the Central Dree Festival Celebration Committee, Ziro before much damage was done, may be due to the efforts of the people or due to lukewarm response from the teams- it is being heard that the CDFCC has enhanced its prize money to INR 25,000/- for winner and 15,000/- for runners-up (to be corroborated).

Now as the prize money has been normalized with the last year's prize money, it is expected that at least the last years teams/clubs, if not more, would vie for this prize.

More updates on the Dree Football Touney 2007 soon.

Do you blog about Arunachal?

In my search for blog on Arunachal, I came across this beautiful photo blog by Sonam and ever since, I was wondering how many of us, Arunachalee, seriously or casually, blog. I tried to find the fellow bloggers but couldn’t make much headway. May be there aren't as many as I thought or may be there are, but eluding me from my search. Or may be, I might have used the wrong key-words. But even then, what I feel is there are bloggers out there - who are from Arunachal or who blogs exclusively about Arunachal - but eluding me. So, I thought of compiling an Arunachalee blogger listing to keep track of fellow bloggers and I need your help in doing so.

So, if you are blogger from Arunachal (physical location doesn't matter) who blogs about anything on universe or if you are a blogger (doesn't matter if you are not from Arunachal) and blog exclusively about Arunachal or if you are not a blogger but happens to come across blogs on Arunachal, do submit your blog (for bloggers) or suggest the link (for who doesn't blog) at arunachaldiary[at]gmail[dot]com giving the following details:

1. Name of the blog
2. URL
3. What's it about
4. Your Location

Your blog will be listed here.

DREE Football Tourney -Prize Money enhanced

Enhanced! I guess normalized would be much appropriate and here I'm, as promised, with the updates.

I was not wrong when I speculated in my earlier post if the teams/clubs would turn up for registration to take part in the much awaited event of the year-the DREE Football Tourney. The reason being the prize money of INR 10,000/-, not lucrative enough to vie for. And the teams/clubs indeed contemplated taking part in the football tourney organized by HDFCC (Hong Dree Festival Celebration Committee) instead, where the prize money is INR 12,000/-. But, good sense has prevailed over the Central Dree Festival Celebration Committee, Ziro before much damage was done, may be due to the efforts of the people or due to lukewarm response from the teams- it is being heard that the CDFCC has enhanced its prize money to INR 25,000/- for winner and 15,000/- for runners-up (to be corroborated).

Now as the prize money has been normalized with the last year's prize money, it is expected that at least the last years teams/clubs, if not more, would vie for this prize.

More updates on the Dree Football Touney 2007 soon.

Ziro Bandh

What has Student Organizations in the state, now-a-days become? Moral Police? Social Worker? A Vigilant Group? A political group? Or is it an organization that looks after welfare of the students? What I feel is that it has become every thing except the organization that is involved in upliftment of student community. Or pawn to some politicians?

The ASU (Apatani Students Union) called 12 hrs bandh from 5 am to 5 pm yesterday, demanding 2 (two) Assembly Constituency for Ziro-I (poster below).

The poster showng their Charter of Demand/s(?)


Road being blocked to prevent vehicular movement

I would not have wrote post about this Bandh, which has almost become a tool of any XYZ organization to let their voice (justified or otherwise) heard but for the telecast in Local TV channel wherein the Union had said that they are calling Bandh to let their voice reach Delhi and had threatened to take the law into their own hands (?) in the event of people not adhering to Bandh Call, the previous night (had muscling around become the duty of the student body, was what I wondered) and for the people, who bears the brunt of such kind of Bandhs. And as was expected, the Bandh Call was total, barring the Government establishments which remained open, with almost all the vehicles, except those of press, law enforcing agencies and magistrate on duty, off the road. The business establishment downed their shutters. After all, who would take the risk of letting themselves to be harmed or their property damaged?

With nothing to do, the whole day I was trying to figure out how the 2-Assembly Constituency for Ziro-I would have affected them? I couldn’t figure out. Wasn’t it the duty of the denizens to demand for the same instead of Students Union? Or was the students union taken for a ride at the behest of political aspirants? Why students did not raise voice against the irregularities in appointment of teachers instead, which would have directly affected them? Well, I guess there are lots of personal stakes involved.

And for God’s sake, would any one make them understand or put sense in them that it would only make the life of a common man miserable by a day or two till such Bandh is imposed and that it wouldn’t affect even the State Government, forget about Delhi. They are just playing into the hands of politicians. Instead, why don’t they concentrate on student’s community welfare activities?

Ziro Bandh

What has Student Organizations in the state, now-a-days become? Moral Police? Social Worker? A Vigilant Group? A political group? Or is it an organization that looks after welfare of the students? What I feel is that it has become every thing except the organization that is involved in upliftment of student community. Or pawn to some politicians?

The ASU (Apatani Students Union) called 12 hrs bandh from 5 am to 5 pm yesterday, demanding 2 (two) Assembly Constituency for Ziro-I (poster below).

The poster showng their Charter of Demand/s(?)


Road being blocked to prevent vehicular movement

I would not have wrote post about this Bandh, which has almost become a tool of any XYZ organization to let their voice (justified or otherwise) heard but for the telecast in Local TV channel wherein the Union had said that they are calling Bandh to let their voice reach Delhi and had threatened to take the law into their own hands (?) in the event of people not adhering to Bandh Call, the previous night (had muscling around become the duty of the student body, was what I wondered) and for the people, who bears the brunt of such kind of Bandhs. And as was expected, the Bandh Call was total, barring the Government establishments which remained open, with almost all the vehicles, except those of press, law enforcing agencies and magistrate on duty, off the road. The business establishment downed their shutters. After all, who would take the risk of letting themselves to be harmed or their property damaged?

With nothing to do, the whole day I was trying to figure out how the 2-Assembly Constituency for Ziro-I would have affected them? I couldn’t figure out. Wasn’t it the duty of the denizens to demand for the same instead of Students Union? Or was the students union taken for a ride at the behest of political aspirants? Why students did not raise voice against the irregularities in appointment of teachers instead, which would have directly affected them? Well, I guess there are lots of personal stakes involved.

And for God’s sake, would any one make them understand or put sense in them that it would only make the life of a common man miserable by a day or two till such Bandh is imposed and that it wouldn’t affect even the State Government, forget about Delhi. They are just playing into the hands of politicians. Instead, why don’t they concentrate on student’s community welfare activities?

Registration of Teams for Dree Football Tourney 2007 begins...

Would there be or wouldn't there be quite a number of teams and spectators turning out for Dree Footbal Tourney 2007?...??? Why? Read below.

Couple of weeks back, the Central Dree Festival Celebration (CDFC) Committee, Ziro announced opening of registration of teams/clubs for participation in the much anticipated event of the year -the Dree Football Tournament which is tentatively slated for June 10^th at Dree Ground, Old Ziro.

But there has been a very cold response to this call for registration of teams/clubs and so far, it is being reported that no teams/clubs has come forward for registration. The reason, as is being said is the prize money, which is not that lucrative to vie for. This year the prize money has been reduced from INR 25,000 for Winner and INR 15,000 for Runners-up to INR 10,000 for winner and INR 5,000 for Runners-up and the people are emphasizing the CDFC, Ziro to enhance the prize money to make the Tournament more lucrative.

“The reason for reducing the prize money this year was due to dearth of fund owing to banning of lottery by State Government (in the wake of DPVBRD imbroglio), which was the major source of generation of fund”, said the CDFC Games and Sports Secretary when enquired as to why the prize money has been reduced this year when the trend of enhancement of prize money every year was set this past couple of years.

On asking why the venue was shifted from Subansiri Stadium to Dree Ground Ziro which may affect the turn out of the tournament, he said, “Owing to the ongoing reconditioning of Subansiri Stadium, we had to take the tournament to Dree Ground at Old Ziro but even then we are expecting a good turn-out.”

Now, it has to be seen as to how many teams would turn up for the tournament and what would be the impact on the turn outs owing to change in venue.

I'd be updating on the Dree Football Tourney 2007, as and when anything new pops up.

Registration of Teams for Dree Football Tourney 2007 begins...

Would there be or wouldn't there be quite a number of teams and spectators turning out for Dree Footbal Tourney 2007?...??? Why? Read below.

Couple of weeks back, the Central Dree Festival Celebration (CDFC) Committee, Ziro announced opening of registration of teams/clubs for participation in the much anticipated event of the year -the Dree Football Tournament which is tentatively slated for June 10^th at Dree Ground, Old Ziro.

But there has been a very cold response to this call for registration of teams/clubs and so far, it is being reported that no teams/clubs has come forward for registration. The reason, as is being said is the prize money, which is not that lucrative to vie for. This year the prize money has been reduced from INR 25,000 for Winner and INR 15,000 for Runners-up to INR 10,000 for winner and INR 5,000 for Runners-up and the people are emphasizing the CDFC, Ziro to enhance the prize money to make the Tournament more lucrative.

“The reason for reducing the prize money this year was due to dearth of fund owing to banning of lottery by State Government (in the wake of DPVBRD imbroglio), which was the major source of generation of fund”, said the CDFC Games and Sports Secretary when enquired as to why the prize money has been reduced this year when the trend of enhancement of prize money every year was set this past couple of years.

On asking why the venue was shifted from Subansiri Stadium to Dree Ground Ziro which may affect the turn out of the tournament, he said, “Owing to the ongoing reconditioning of Subansiri Stadium, we had to take the tournament to Dree Ground at Old Ziro but even then we are expecting a good turn-out.”

Now, it has to be seen as to how many teams would turn up for the tournament and what would be the impact on the turn outs owing to change in venue.

I'd be updating on the Dree Football Tourney 2007, as and when anything new pops up.

What’s Cooking?

The Arunachal Times reports-

“The Indo-China border personnel meeting will be held in China along the Tawang Sector on May 28 next, 190 Brigade Command GOC Brig. Sanjoy Kulkarni will lead the Indian Army team, defence PRO Lt. Col. Narendra Singh Said, adding only local media persons from Arunachal Pradesh will be allowed to cover the event.”

Well, what’s cooking? Is it in the wake of reported boundary incursion?

What’s Cooking?

The Arunachal Times reports-

“The Indo-China border personnel meeting will be held in China along the Tawang Sector on May 28 next, 190 Brigade Command GOC Brig. Sanjoy Kulkarni will lead the Indian Army team, defence PRO Lt. Col. Narendra Singh Said, adding only local media persons from Arunachal Pradesh will be allowed to cover the event.”

Well, what’s cooking? Is it in the wake of reported boundary incursion?

Should we bother?

Instead of directly replying to the comment by Buru on my post on Final Settlement of Boundary Dispute!, I thought of making it a full post. So here it is:

I don’t deny that we the North-Easterner has always been part of prejudice whenever we are in other parts of the country for whatever reasons (for Higher studies, for business trips or just for vacationing) and may be this is one of the reasons why this part of the country has not been able to be brought to the mainstream completely, so far.

But my dear friend Buru, I don’t agree with you that our history says that we came from China. Though, certainly there is folklore, of us migrating from high up above present day Arunachal (In case of Tani Groups), but it never suggested that it was from China. The only reference is some large lake (probably at Tibet) beyond which the elders doesn’t seem to know much or may be doesn’t want to tell further (may be due to some reservations). And to talk about food and culture, I don’t know if there is any similarity between us and the Chinese as I’ve not been to China nor I've tried to study their food habits, tradition or culture, so far. (Here I’m referring to Tani group only). In this regard, I fumbled upon ethnology, and couldn’t find anything that says that Tani group has any link with the people of China. If you do, then let me know.

And I do agree with you that, who the heck they are to decide about our land without taking us into confidence. After all, it’s our land. But then, don’t you think that we people have accepted that we are part of India and we are Indian? What is intriguing is that despite us considering to be part of India, the Centre doesn’t seem to think so. If that’s not the case then Centre should have taken us and the state Government into confidence while carrying forward the talks on border row, even though it is highly sensitive in nature and a diplomatic issue. And now they are deciding our fate. Also, what is more despising is that the state Government seems to be content with the statement that Arunachal is integral part of India, and parroting whatever the Centre wants it to mouth. And the so called intellectuals of this state, they seem to know nothing about or bother about the whole issue.

And if it is the question of who rules Arunachal, then why India or China? Why not America? In that case, Arunachal would become buffer zone to India and China and we may witness infrastructural developments which has so far been eluding us.

The question here is not about Tani group, Mishmi’s, Monpa’s or the other groups of the state, it is about Arunachal-the state as a whole, it is about why should anyone challenge the territorial integrity of our state? Should we be satisfied with the Centre’s statement that 'Arunachal is integral part of India', when they are actually trying to challenge the integrity of the state? Shouldn’t we try to save the territorial integrity? Or should we think either way it's o.k. and don't bother at all about the territorial integrity? What do you say?

Should we bother?

Instead of directly replying to the comment by Buru on my post on Final Settlement of Boundary Dispute!, I thought of making it a full post. So here it is:

I don’t deny that we the North-Easterner has always been part of prejudice whenever we are in other parts of the country for whatever reasons (for Higher studies, for business trips or just for vacationing) and may be this is one of the reasons why this part of the country has not been able to be brought to the mainstream completely, so far.

But my dear friend Buru, I don’t agree with you that our history says that we came from China. Though, certainly there is folklore, of us migrating from high up above present day Arunachal (In case of Tani Groups), but it never suggested that it was from China. The only reference is some large lake (probably at Tibet) beyond which the elders doesn’t seem to know much or may be doesn’t want to tell further (may be due to some reservations). And to talk about food and culture, I don’t know if there is any similarity between us and the Chinese as I’ve not been to China nor I've tried to study their food habits, tradition or culture, so far. (Here I’m referring to Tani group only). In this regard, I fumbled upon ethnology, and couldn’t find anything that says that Tani group has any link with the people of China. If you do, then let me know.

And I do agree with you that, who the heck they are to decide about our land without taking us into confidence. After all, it’s our land. But then, don’t you think that we people have accepted that we are part of India and we are Indian? What is intriguing is that despite us considering to be part of India, the Centre doesn’t seem to think so. If that’s not the case then Centre should have taken us and the state Government into confidence while carrying forward the talks on border row, even though it is highly sensitive in nature and a diplomatic issue. And now they are deciding our fate. Also, what is more despising is that the state Government seems to be content with the statement that Arunachal is integral part of India, and parroting whatever the Centre wants it to mouth. And the so called intellectuals of this state, they seem to know nothing about or bother about the whole issue.

And if it is the question of who rules Arunachal, then why India or China? Why not America? In that case, Arunachal would become buffer zone to India and China and we may witness infrastructural developments which has so far been eluding us.

The question here is not about Tani group, Mishmi’s, Monpa’s or the other groups of the state, it is about Arunachal-the state as a whole, it is about why should anyone challenge the territorial integrity of our state? Should we be satisfied with the Centre’s statement that 'Arunachal is integral part of India', when they are actually trying to challenge the integrity of the state? Shouldn’t we try to save the territorial integrity? Or should we think either way it's o.k. and don't bother at all about the territorial integrity? What do you say?

Final Settlement of Boundary Dispute!

Is it for real?

After much claim, counter claims, round of talks, claim of boundary intrusion and denials (1, 2, 3), the Central Government has finally broken their long held silence about this (Indo-China Boundary Dispute) whole issue and declared that final package settlement covering all sectors of India and China may be arrived at soon (shall I presume by the end of 11^th round or will it be just wining and dining at some exotic locales again…may be somewhere at Arunachal : p) followed by marking of boundaries and actual delineation and demarcation of boundary.

The Arunachal Times reports-

“India and China are exploring the framework of a final package settlement covering all sectors of the India-China boundary.” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.

“This will be followed by the last stage, which will involve actual delineation and demarcation of the boundary on maps and ground by the civil, military and survey officials from the two sides,” he said in the upper house.

Now I wonder what this final package of settlement would be. Earlier, it was presumed that there would be east-west swap i.e., of 90,000 sq. km of land that China says is the part of their country, to India and of 38,000 sq.km of land that India says China is occupying illegally, to China. But, with the greater gameplan that China has, it doesn’t seem at all that China would be satisfied with Aksai Chin alone as was presumed earlier but would be much more interested to at least grab some part of Arunachal, if not whole of it (surely India wouldn’t part with whole of Arunachal but may part with some as hinted after 9^th round of talks, to settle once and for all this contentious boundary dispute), along with Aksai Chin in the final package for settlement. If that is what’s to be expected, then where does the credibility of Centre’s statement that Arunachal Pradesh is integral part of India lies? Aren’t we, the people of Arunachal, being duped by the Centre? Has the state government, if not we the people of Arunachal, been taken into confidence by centre about this whole issue? If not, how long would the state government remain a mute spectator to this whole issue, pretending that this state is an integral part of India, when in actuality, its territory is being challenged?

I further wonder, if some part of Arunachal is exchanged as a part of final settlement to boundary dispute then which part of Arunachal it would be. Let me try to straighten the equation. Tawang – it doesn’t seem that India would be willing to part with it; after all the sentiments of ‘62’s defeat is attached with it. May be eastern part of Arunachal i.e., Tirap, Changlang et.al., but then, would China be interested in getting involved in another boundary row with so called The Greater Nagalim? Or will it be border areas of Central Part of Arunachal, but then again, the Centre has hinted that the populated areas wouldn’t be disturbed so as to create a partition like situation. And to talk about the border, it is told that population of Arunachal are settled across the LAC also. Then what would be the final package of boundary settlement? Will it consists of entire district/districts of Arunachal Pradesh, as entire population would then be exchanged along with the territory and there would be no partition like situation?

Seems it’s too tough an equation to straighten out. So, till both the country arrives at final package of settlement of boundary dispute, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and praying that the territorial integrity of this easternmost state is not challenged in the final package of settlement, lest we may have cross-border brethren. And I’m eagerly waiting for this more than 44 years long dispute to end so that we would be sure as to where we would be waking up the next day.

Final Settlement of Boundary Dispute!

Is it for real?

After much claim, counter claims, round of talks, claim of boundary intrusion and denials (1, 2, 3), the Central Government has finally broken their long held silence about this (Indo-China Boundary Dispute) whole issue and declared that final package settlement covering all sectors of India and China may be arrived at soon (shall I presume by the end of 11^th round or will it be just wining and dining at some exotic locales again…may be somewhere at Arunachal : p) followed by marking of boundaries and actual delineation and demarcation of boundary.

The Arunachal Times reports-

“India and China are exploring the framework of a final package settlement covering all sectors of the India-China boundary.” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.

“This will be followed by the last stage, which will involve actual delineation and demarcation of the boundary on maps and ground by the civil, military and survey officials from the two sides,” he said in the upper house.

Now I wonder what this final package of settlement would be. Earlier, it was presumed that there would be east-west swap i.e., of 90,000 sq. km of land that China says is the part of their country, to India and of 38,000 sq.km of land that India says China is occupying illegally, to China. But, with the greater gameplan that China has, it doesn’t seem at all that China would be satisfied with Aksai Chin alone as was presumed earlier but would be much more interested to at least grab some part of Arunachal, if not whole of it (surely India wouldn’t part with whole of Arunachal but may part with some as hinted after 9^th round of talks, to settle once and for all this contentious boundary dispute), along with Aksai Chin in the final package for settlement. If that is what’s to be expected, then where does the credibility of Centre’s statement that Arunachal Pradesh is integral part of India lies? Aren’t we, the people of Arunachal, being duped by the Centre? Has the state government, if not we the people of Arunachal, been taken into confidence by centre about this whole issue? If not, how long would the state government remain a mute spectator to this whole issue, pretending that this state is an integral part of India, when in actuality, its territory is being challenged?

I further wonder, if some part of Arunachal is exchanged as a part of final settlement to boundary dispute then which part of Arunachal it would be. Let me try to straighten the equation. Tawang – it doesn’t seem that India would be willing to part with it; after all the sentiments of ‘62’s defeat is attached with it. May be eastern part of Arunachal i.e., Tirap, Changlang et.al., but then, would China be interested in getting involved in another boundary row with so called The Greater Nagalim? Or will it be border areas of Central Part of Arunachal, but then again, the Centre has hinted that the populated areas wouldn’t be disturbed so as to create a partition like situation. And to talk about the border, it is told that population of Arunachal are settled across the LAC also. Then what would be the final package of boundary settlement? Will it consists of entire district/districts of Arunachal Pradesh, as entire population would then be exchanged along with the territory and there would be no partition like situation?

Seems it’s too tough an equation to straighten out. So, till both the country arrives at final package of settlement of boundary dispute, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and praying that the territorial integrity of this easternmost state is not challenged in the final package of settlement, lest we may have cross-border brethren. And I’m eagerly waiting for this more than 44 years long dispute to end so that we would be sure as to where we would be waking up the next day.

Giant Drawing

Giant..really giant, ain't it. I stumbled upon this video and quite liked the great piece of art work and hope you would do. So enjoy!

Giant Drawing

Giant..really giant, ain't it. I stumbled upon this video and quite liked the great piece of art work and hope you would do. So enjoy!

Hands on Illustrator

Well, creativity bug bit me these past few days and I thought of trying my hands on computer illustration. With sketch by Cho handy with me (hey that's creativity indeed ;-))

(Cho's Sketch)

I fiddled with Illustrator to get the feel of its various tools and finally after more than 6 hrs I came up with this (see below).

(Finished Artwork)

C’mon, I know there are lots of flaw in this illustration, but it's my first try on anything like computer/digital illustration. I hope I would be able to explore more of this wonderful software-Adobe ‘Illustrator’ in days to come and would be able to improve myself on computer illustration.

P.S. Hope I was able to do justice with sketch work of Cho.

For the above work I've extensively used Guassian Blur.

AN ASSESSMENT OF AFSPA IN THE NORTH-EASTERN STATES

-Roto Chobin

In August 1942, The Armed Forces (Special Power) Ordinance was passed and promulgated by the then viceroy and Governor-general Lord Linlithgow to quash the congress, then crusading for the freedom. Again in May 1958, the legislator of both houses of parliament unanimously decided to pass the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act to suppress militants in the north-east, which was to become and known as Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) after two minor amendments when Manipur and Arunachal became a full-fledged Indian states in 1972 and 1986 respectively. And with these amendments, the Act could applied to all the seven states in the north-east of India viz., Arunachal, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura and the power to declare an area disturbed went to the Governor from state government. The dictions and clauses were seems to be largely borrowed from the Ordinance of 1942 to draft the Act of 1958. In other words, the AFSPA is a replication or distorted version of the Ordinance. And the only difference in the Ordinance and the Act is that the former was passed by the Foreigner to rule an alien country effectively while the later was passed by our own representatives to rule a citizen with iron rod.

Now, what exactly is AFSPA? And what makes this act so special? As a matter of fact, The AFSPA confer immense power, not to mention, impunity to the armed forces as it grants even a non-commissioned officer to shoot to kill any person based on mere suspicion to maintain public order [sic] under the powers of section 4(a). Can we really maintain peace and tranquility in the north-east region or anywhere by killing people? Doesn’t it lead to cycle of violence? The section 4(c) states that the army can arrest anyone without a warrant. Under section 4(d), the army can enter and search without a warrant. And, perhaps, this is when the army gets an opportunity to round-up women and children, and rape them mercilessly in the pretext of searching for unlawful things in the premises. And the section 6 institutes that no legal proceeding can be initiated against any member of the armed forces acting under the AFSPA without prior permission from the Central Government. The case of Manorama Devi, who was allegedly picked up from her house at the dead of night, tortured, raped and killed, evidently manifests that the army is indeed immune from prosecution processes. In section 2, the armed forces were defined as “the military and Air Force of the union so operating”. I would not be surprised if the Navy had also been included as from the Bay of Bengal the disturbed area is within a striking distance. The AFSPA is undeniably special for armed forces in India and exotic, too. And bequeathed especially and exclusively to northeastern states and J&K.

The human rights groups dubbed this Act a tyrannical and draconian act. The people all over in the north-east states are opposing and demanding for the repeal of the Act as it makes an ordinary army an indestructible monster. In July 2004, a dozen of Manipuri elder women took out a nude protest with a banner that boldly says, “Indian Army Rape Us” against security personnel in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters. Pebam Chitaranjan, an adviser of the Manipur students’ Federation of Bishenpur unit, immolated himself on Independence Day (15 august, 2004) citing in a suicide note that “It is better to self-immolate than die at the hands of security forces”. Irom sharmila, recently honoured by South Korea’s prestigious 2007 Gwangju prize for human rights, has been observing hunger strike and protesting against this Act since November, 2000 when security personnel massacred almost a dozen men at Malom, Manipur. Despite all these protestations, the legislators consider it is proper to maintain status quo in the North-east. In November 2004, the central govt. set up five-member committee under the chairmanship of Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy, former judge of Supreme Court, to review the Act. He was assisted by Dr. S.B. Nakade, former Vice Chancellor), jurist P. Srivastav, IAS (Retd.), Lt. Gen (Retd.) V.R. Raghavan, former DGMO and Sanjoy Hazarika, journalist. The B.P. Jeevan Reddy committee submitted the report on June 6, 2005. However, this report has never been officially made public. But, unfortunately, a copy of this report was leaked and the gist of the recommendations was later appeared in the print media. The B.P. Jeevan Reddy commission report states that, “keeping in view the material placed before us and the impressions gathered by the committee during the course of its visits and hearings held within and outside the North East states, the committee is of the firm view that: the AFSPA ,1958 should be repealed. Therefore, recommending the continuation of the present Act, with or without amendments, does not arise. The act is too sketchy, too bald and quite inadequate in several particulars...” Notwithstanding the recommendations made by the five-member commission, the reports were neglected.

It’s almost 50 years since the AFSPA inception. If this legislation was formulated to deal with insurgency, it has failed to deliver the wishful result. On the contrary, proliferation of militancy and amplification of its operation attests the futility of this act. The lawmaker in Delhi seems to be more concern with law and order than the well-being of the people of the northeastern region. They belong to the radical school of thought that favours the AFSPA should remain in force and the armies think it is the answer to the terror hit areas. Ironically, the militants are as active as ever and remained untraced. The armies keep operating their combing operation day in day out. And in this chain of attack and counter attack, it is the civilian who usually bear the full brunt and often killed. The militants forcefully extort money, collect taxes and kidnap the commonalties for ransom while the armies arrest and torture them for aiding the militants. Take, for instance, the case of bomb blast by United Liberation Force of Assam (ULFA) near Medo village in Arunachal on April 25, 2007 which killed two security personnel. The Arunachal Times reported that the 82 Mountain Brigade of army retaliated by ransacking many houses and destroyed their household items and accused the villager for sheltering the militants. Furthermore, the security personnel forced the hapless villager to do laborious work without serving them food and water. This is one of the many cases that hold a little importance to the legislators in the Delhi. If terrorism by its definition is the systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies, then the armed forces are not at all different from the militants. Sometimes it occurs as if the militants and armies are jointly working together to harass the common ordinary people.

As of now, a proposal to declare entire Arunachal a disturbed area and bring it under the purview of AFSPA has popped up; the state legislators denied the recommendation though. However, it is hard to believe that any sane person could impose such draconian act on any state unless he is a Nazi or possess a profound hatred for the people of that region. Those of us who live in the expectation of good governance from our government and sincere and honest effort to tackle the militancy, The AFSPA will always give the impression of a legitimate decree to cleanse all the ethnic bit by bit in the North-east states through Armed Forces.

Hands on Illustrator

Well, creativity bug bit me these past few days and I thought of trying my hands on computer illustration. With sketch by Cho handy with me (hey that's creativity indeed ;-))

(Cho's Sketch)

I fiddled with Illustrator to get the feel of its various tools and finally after more than 6 hrs I came up with this (see below).

(Finished Artwork)

C’mon, I know there are lots of flaw in this illustration, but it's my first try on anything like computer/digital illustration. I hope I would be able to explore more of this wonderful software-Adobe ‘Illustrator’ in days to come and would be able to improve myself on computer illustration.

P.S. Hope I was able to do justice with sketch work of Cho.

For the above work I've extensively used Guassian Blur.

AN ASSESSMENT OF AFSPA IN THE NORTH-EASTERN STATES

-Roto Chobin

In August 1942, The Armed Forces (Special Power) Ordinance was passed and promulgated by the then viceroy and Governor-general Lord Linlithgow to quash the congress, then crusading for the freedom. Again in May 1958, the legislator of both houses of parliament unanimously decided to pass the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act to suppress militants in the north-east, which was to become and known as Armed Forces (Special Power) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) after two minor amendments when Manipur and Arunachal became a full-fledged Indian states in 1972 and 1986 respectively. And with these amendments, the Act could applied to all the seven states in the north-east of India viz., Arunachal, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura and the power to declare an area disturbed went to the Governor from state government. The dictions and clauses were seems to be largely borrowed from the Ordinance of 1942 to draft the Act of 1958. In other words, the AFSPA is a replication or distorted version of the Ordinance. And the only difference in the Ordinance and the Act is that the former was passed by the Foreigner to rule an alien country effectively while the later was passed by our own representatives to rule a citizen with iron rod.

Now, what exactly is AFSPA? And what makes this act so special? As a matter of fact, The AFSPA confer immense power, not to mention, impunity to the armed forces as it grants even a non-commissioned officer to shoot to kill any person based on mere suspicion to maintain public order [sic] under the powers of section 4(a). Can we really maintain peace and tranquility in the north-east region or anywhere by killing people? Doesn’t it lead to cycle of violence? The section 4(c) states that the army can arrest anyone without a warrant. Under section 4(d), the army can enter and search without a warrant. And, perhaps, this is when the army gets an opportunity to round-up women and children, and rape them mercilessly in the pretext of searching for unlawful things in the premises. And the section 6 institutes that no legal proceeding can be initiated against any member of the armed forces acting under the AFSPA without prior permission from the Central Government. The case of Manorama Devi, who was allegedly picked up from her house at the dead of night, tortured, raped and killed, evidently manifests that the army is indeed immune from prosecution processes. In section 2, the armed forces were defined as “the military and Air Force of the union so operating”. I would not be surprised if the Navy had also been included as from the Bay of Bengal the disturbed area is within a striking distance. The AFSPA is undeniably special for armed forces in India and exotic, too. And bequeathed especially and exclusively to northeastern states and J&K.

The human rights groups dubbed this Act a tyrannical and draconian act. The people all over in the north-east states are opposing and demanding for the repeal of the Act as it makes an ordinary army an indestructible monster. In July 2004, a dozen of Manipuri elder women took out a nude protest with a banner that boldly says, “Indian Army Rape Us” against security personnel in front of the Assam Rifles headquarters. Pebam Chitaranjan, an adviser of the Manipur students’ Federation of Bishenpur unit, immolated himself on Independence Day (15 august, 2004) citing in a suicide note that “It is better to self-immolate than die at the hands of security forces”. Irom sharmila, recently honoured by South Korea’s prestigious 2007 Gwangju prize for human rights, has been observing hunger strike and protesting against this Act since November, 2000 when security personnel massacred almost a dozen men at Malom, Manipur. Despite all these protestations, the legislators consider it is proper to maintain status quo in the North-east. In November 2004, the central govt. set up five-member committee under the chairmanship of Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy, former judge of Supreme Court, to review the Act. He was assisted by Dr. S.B. Nakade, former Vice Chancellor), jurist P. Srivastav, IAS (Retd.), Lt. Gen (Retd.) V.R. Raghavan, former DGMO and Sanjoy Hazarika, journalist. The B.P. Jeevan Reddy committee submitted the report on June 6, 2005. However, this report has never been officially made public. But, unfortunately, a copy of this report was leaked and the gist of the recommendations was later appeared in the print media. The B.P. Jeevan Reddy commission report states that, “keeping in view the material placed before us and the impressions gathered by the committee during the course of its visits and hearings held within and outside the North East states, the committee is of the firm view that: the AFSPA ,1958 should be repealed. Therefore, recommending the continuation of the present Act, with or without amendments, does not arise. The act is too sketchy, too bald and quite inadequate in several particulars...” Notwithstanding the recommendations made by the five-member commission, the reports were neglected.

It’s almost 50 years since the AFSPA inception. If this legislation was formulated to deal with insurgency, it has failed to deliver the wishful result. On the contrary, proliferation of militancy and amplification of its operation attests the futility of this act. The lawmaker in Delhi seems to be more concern with law and order than the well-being of the people of the northeastern region. They belong to the radical school of thought that favours the AFSPA should remain in force and the armies think it is the answer to the terror hit areas. Ironically, the militants are as active as ever and remained untraced. The armies keep operating their combing operation day in day out. And in this chain of attack and counter attack, it is the civilian who usually bear the full brunt and often killed. The militants forcefully extort money, collect taxes and kidnap the commonalties for ransom while the armies arrest and torture them for aiding the militants. Take, for instance, the case of bomb blast by United Liberation Force of Assam (ULFA) near Medo village in Arunachal on April 25, 2007 which killed two security personnel. The Arunachal Times reported that the 82 Mountain Brigade of army retaliated by ransacking many houses and destroyed their household items and accused the villager for sheltering the militants. Furthermore, the security personnel forced the hapless villager to do laborious work without serving them food and water. This is one of the many cases that hold a little importance to the legislators in the Delhi. If terrorism by its definition is the systematic use of violence as a means to intimidate or coerce societies, then the armed forces are not at all different from the militants. Sometimes it occurs as if the militants and armies are jointly working together to harass the common ordinary people.

As of now, a proposal to declare entire Arunachal a disturbed area and bring it under the purview of AFSPA has popped up; the state legislators denied the recommendation though. However, it is hard to believe that any sane person could impose such draconian act on any state unless he is a Nazi or possess a profound hatred for the people of that region. Those of us who live in the expectation of good governance from our government and sincere and honest effort to tackle the militancy, The AFSPA will always give the impression of a legitimate decree to cleanse all the ethnic bit by bit in the North-east states through Armed Forces.

Preview of Excesses & AFSPA

“Should Arunachal be declared disturbed and AFSPA imposed?”

“BTW what’s AFSPA?”

“Well, it is the act which gives Army the unquestionable powers to shoot to kill, arrest and search or even destroy the entire property on mere suspicion and they won’t even be tried for their act in the court of law.”

“Hmm… ek bar AFSPA impose karke bhi dekh lena chahiye, kya harj hai (Hmm… should impose AFSPA once and see, what’s the big deal).”

This was one of the responses that I received while taking views about AFSPA from the people here and it totally baffled me. What do you mean by should impose once? Does the person know, if AFSPA is imposed once it would be almost impossible to revert the imposition? Well, I guess not.

“Do you know that on imposing this act there may be cases of Human Rights violation and even you may not be spared?,” I asked.

“Why me? I’m a God fearing and law-abiding person.”

Very true. Why would any law abiding citizen be harassed by the law. But, latest report says otherwise. The AFSPA was only proposed and not even imposed yet in the state, the report of army atrocity is pouring in.

April 25: Powerful IED blast by ULFA near Medo village kills two army personnel and grievously injures Four.

May1: Army atrocities on the innocent villagers of Namgo Village under Chowkham Circle of Lohit District in the wake of IED blast reported.

“On arriving at the village after the blast was triggered at 4.40 pm, the army personnel summoned the villagers, engaged them in cleaning the area and forced them to kneel down the whole night without food and water. It was not the end of their excesses as next morning the poor villagers were engaged in cleaning the jungle and fetching muddy water without serving them a morsel of food and drop of water. Most of the villagers were charged with harboring the militants and tortured”

-The Arunachal Times

Further, there is report of destruction of property by uniformed personnel by entering into the houses of villager including that of Gaon Bura (GB) and threatening of local MLA.

May 4: Issue raised in Lok Sabha by MP Khiren Rijiju.

I do not say that the probe shouldn’t be initiated and suspects interrogated and that army personnel should not be angered over the incident (IED Blast), after all human lives were lost but to relieve the anger on simpleton villagers-where has the army intelligence gone? Couldn’t they pin point the suspect and interrogate? Weren’t the villagers God-fearing and Law abiding citizens or did their intelligence said that entire villagers were a suspect. But then, what way of interrogation was that-cleaning the area by villagers to search for the bodies, torturing, destruction of properties and threatening. And if this is the way the army use their might, God forbid, what would be the case if the proposal of declaring the State as "disturbed" and imposing AFSPA becomes reality, where the Army has unquestionable powers. Then they are GOD.

Doesn’t this act of theirs preparing future law breakers? Just as the Army was angered over the incident and subjected the villagers to atrocities, the innocent villagers may be angered over the Army excesses and take the law into their own hands. Who would be blamed for, then? Shouldn't the Army or any other law enforcing agency act sensibly instead of carried over by their emotions? Though, the Army tendered their apology for their atrocities on villagers, I fear, if such atrocities are not curbed it may lead to harbouring of secessionist tendencies among people of the state, and then AFSPA would be unavoidable irrespective of whether we consider the state still peaceful or not and the entire state would be in total chaos.

Also, it is pity on the part of people of this state who advocates imposition of AFSPA even though they consider this state as one of the most peaceful state of the country (guess they are not aware of the provisions in the act). However, I hope that the incident of atrocity at Namgo village would open their eyes and now would not vouch for AFSPA, th
e imposition of which may lead to more reports of Human Rights violation.

I thank my readers for whole heartedly participating in the poll on "Should Arunachal be put under the purview of AFSPA" and letting their views known. The result till now from 33 votes is 97% against AFSPA and 3% unsure on whether AFSPA be imposed on the state or not. The poll will be closed tomorrow. So do vote today and let your views be known.