Arunachal Pradesh, ………… an ill-afforded crisis!

When a central government chooses to meddle with the constitutional legitimacy of a federate state by overt or covert means, it is a bad omen for the union and the democracy. This explains the questioning note of the President to the Union government and the Congress and the seriousness which the Apex court attaches to this. It sought the Governor’s confidential report to Center within fifteen minutes today and then allowed time until Friday to do so.

 It is ominous in the context of consequences that have followed for India from such interference with democracy in the bordering states. Arunachal borders with China and continues to be a contentious issue between the two nations. The President’s question to the centre, regarding the urgency of its move to bring the state under central rule, and his note to the Congress for the reasons why the state assembly remained suspended for six months, adds to the seriousness of the matter.

It is not the first time that a Union Government has exercised such recourse. Many governments of the past irrespective of their denominations have been equally covetous; this government is not an exception. The Congress government led by Indira Gandhi did it in Punjab and the nation got Bhindranwale and the Khalistan from such engineered instability. Rajiv’s Congress government did it in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as it dismissed the GM Shah government, bringing turbulence to this paradise and now this government chooses to do it in Arunachal Pradesh.

 Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir border with Pakistan while Arunachal shares frontiers with China.  Despite, historical consequences of such misadventures the government refuses to learn from history and sees wisdom in its action now brought before the apex court. Border States have their strategic implications more so in the given context of terrorism that seeps into these states from hostile nations threatening the unity and integrity of this nation. Jammu Kashmir and Punjab are on this list, the nation can ill afford adding one more to this.