Netizens and organizations in Arunachal Pradesh are questioning the demand for creation of Mon Autonomous Region comprising Tawang and West Kameng districts in the state.
The Mon Autonomous Region Demand Committee (MARDC) had on July 29 convened a meeting and reiterated their demand for creation of the autonomous region.
The committee has reportedly come up with an 11-point resolution which also includes a call for boycotting the panchayat elections in the two districts of Tawang and West Kameng if no headway is made by the state and the central governments with regard to the creation of the autonomous region.
The issue spiraled into several people ‘demanding’ creation of similar autonomous regions in the state. Several edited maps of Arunachal Pradesh, depicting the probable autonomous regions were shared on the social media.
The Nyishi Elite Society (NES) on August 1 alleged that the chief minister was “orchestrating and patronizing the Mon Autonomous Region Demand Committee (MARDC) movement”, the Arunachal Times reported.
“The CM is supposed to thwart any attempt of disintegration of the state and not of Mon region alone,” the NES said.
“The much-famed Hamara Arunachal Abhiyan (HAA) launched by the state government on October 2, 2019, has lost its relevance with the emerging situation. There is no political, economic and social deprivation; rather, Mon region tops in all developmental and civic services fronts and therefore it is an ill-conceived demand,” the NES said.
The Nyishi Elite Society further said that the demand is ill-timed as the relations with China are not good at present. “It is a fit case to attract the National Security Act,” the NES said.
The Nyishi Ethnic Students’ of Arunachal (NESA) has also condemned MARDC’s move. In a press release on August 1, NESA said: “The demand and subsequent creation of MAR, comprising Tawang and West Kameng districts, and the Patkai autonomous council, comprising Tirap, Longding and Changlang districts, will compel the Nyishi community for similar demands.”
The NESA accused the elected legislators of Tawang and West Kameng districts of “misguiding the issue and creating a divide among the people of the state.”
It stated that any such development should be inclusive and all communities of the state should be made part of the development process.
