People’s Party of Arunachal pitches for ‘amendment’ of Article 371H

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: The People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) while describing Article 371H as ‘nothing more than like a post dated cheque with practically no rights to the indigenous people of the state’, has made a strong pitch for the amendment of it saying, “this is the most important and relevant issue that all political parties, civil societies and the student organizations should fight for from now on”.

In a statement, the lone regional party of the state said that it fails to understand why can’t the state government have a sincere dialogue with the Centre on a ‘meaningful placement of the state in the Constitution with regard to Article 371 H and 371 A’.

While claiming that PPA is of the sincere opinion that this very vital subject has been overlooked by Lok Sabha MPs Kiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao, it questioned as to why couldn’t they initiate discussions on this (Article 371H) and added saying “what better opportunity we could have when both the state and the Centre have the same party ruling both the governments”.

Opining that without being self-reliant the indigenous people in the state will not prosper, the PPA said: “The inner line permit is not the long term solution. We need to manage and own our own resources on our own terms. It’s never too late. We should make a beginning from now on.”

Stating that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is mainly targeted towards Assam and Tripura, the PPA said: “the rest of the Northeastern states will be badly affected too as Guwahati in Assam is almost like the capital city of the Northeastern region.”

It added, “We need to understand that this is not at all a politically motivated issue, but an issue that will have a serious socio, economic, political and demographic ramifications in the region if we fall into the divisive politics of the government in power.”

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