Editor,

It is deeply disheartening and utterly frustrating to witness Chief Minister Pema Khandu callously playing with the emotions and lives of the Adi people, particularly those of Upper Siang and Siang districts, over the controversial Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP).

Time and again, the Chief Minister's office has summoned villagers and SIFF representatives to Itanagar for discussions on SUMP. Every single time, these farmers-already struggling-have been forced to bear the full cost of travel and stay out of their own pockets and yet there was no conclusion.

In the 2019 elections, the Chief Minister publicly declared that he would not force the dam if the villagers did not want it. That promise has been exposed as a complete sham. Instead of honouring the will of the people, he became the first Chief Minister in the history of Arunachal Pradesh to deploy paramilitary forces to crush the legitimate voice of the very villagers he had assured.

On 13th October 2026, a meeting was held between the Chief Minister, ABK Youth Wing and ADISU despite a clear boycott call by SIFF Youth Wing due to frustration of same cheap tactics being played again and again. It is a matter of deep shame that those who attended the meeting appeared satisfied and issued no strong statement of rejection. The meeting should have been a clear yes or no on the Preliminary Feasibility Report (PFR) and SUMP. Instead, the attendees were either manipulated by empty assurances or deliberately chose to remain silent (pretending to be a bunch of fools) while the actual affected villagers continued to suffer.

The Chief Minister, his ministers and MLAs are openly playing with the tears of our Abu-Aane-elders who are prepared to lay down their lives to protect their land from this project. The so-called "reduction" of paramilitary presence raises an obvious and disturbing question: if the government truly respects the people, why not withdraw the forces completely?

This pattern of deceit is not new. The same Chief Minister promised that all FIRs in the

APPSC paper leakage case would be withdrawn. Not a single FIR has been quashed.

Instead, the cases have been chargesheeted, and individuals such as Tadak Nalo, Techi Puru and others who still have multiple FIRs and are still forced to attend court every month.

Even if those FIRs are eventually withdrawn, it is clear that the government intends to impose the PFR later using the so-called reduced remaining forces which will inevitably compel the villagers to resist and fresh FIRs will be registered and the same cycle of harassment will begin again.

It is the height of hypocrisy when police and ministers warn that "law and order should not be disturbed," when it is they who have created the law-and-order situation through the forceful deployment of paramilitary and the aggressive push for PFR. The villagers have lived peacefully for generations. Trouble arises only when the state tries to impose this project against their will.

There are serious allegations that PFR signatures are being obtained on blank papers and that a developmental package of Rs.2.5 lakh is being distributed through the administration to induce consent. This is the first time scheme funds appear to be used so openly to buy signatures for a project the people reject. Investigative journalists and RTI activists must dig deep into these practices, just as the recent controversies involving high constitutional offices have been exposed by a journalist on Gyanesh Kumar (Chief Election Commissioner of India) which lead to CJP and India alliance bloc party to conduct mass protest.

Dirty politics is being played at every level by the Chief Minister, his ministers, MLAs and the MP. The Adi people of Upper Siang and Siang deserve honesty, not coercion, false promises and the suppression of their democratic voice.

Ebo Mili