India – bsCEM: Statement Against SUMP Project in Solidarity with the People of Arunachal
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement published by Bhagat Singh Student Union Platform (bsCEM) on November 7.
The Union and Arunachal Pradesh government plans to build a 11,200 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) in the Siang River of Arunachal Pradesh, which comes at the extreme cost of ecological destruction, loss of life and land of the people of Arunachal Pradesh. The proposed dam project was not born in one day and the resilience against this corporate plunder has been going around for nearly two decades now. On 9th october, four activists, Adum Tayom, Omak Paron, Okut Paloh and Oson Parson were arrested under the draconian Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (APUAPA). On 23rd October protests against the construction of this dam were brutally repressed by the Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist State using their coercive state machinery tools including CRPF, CAPF, ITBP and Arunachal Pradesh Police. The security forces used tear gases and stun grenades attacks on the dissenting masses, and police raids and multiple
arrests have been recorded arbitrarily to silence the resistance. For further intensification of the crackdown, on 27th October Sixty nine activists were arrested under the same APUAPA.
The flames of people’s resistance against this imperialist development model flared up in Delhi on October 31, when bsCEM, along with radical environmental organizations such as Himkhand and
organisations from Arunachal Pradesh, organized a protest outside Arunachal Bhawan to oppose this anti-people project.
The demonstration was brutally repressed by the fascist state machinery. The Delhi police and Central forces acting on behalf of the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist state ruthlessly detained and
manhandled the activists, specifically assaulting female comrades by targeting their private parts. Several protesters were taken separately to different police stations, where they remained unreachable for a long time. Once again the fascist nature of state has been unleashed on the dissenting masses.
While the government claims that the construction of SUMP is for ‘national security’ against the 60K MW dam being built by China upstream, records clearly show that the Indian government has tried to build the same dam multiple times, before there was ever a dam upstream in Chinese territory. Prior attempts, first in 1979 and then in 2003, have been thwarted by the indigenous tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, namely the Adi tribe, at the centre of whose land SUMP is being proposed. It is clear as day that SUMP is bid for profit and not for any national security.
A government so concerned about security might instead worry about building a massive dam in the sensitive seismic zone of the Eastern Himalayas where the Eurasian, Indian and Burmese tectonic plates meet.
If constructed, the dam will also result in the submergence of a major portion of the Siang Valley. The Siang also has huge economical and cultural significance in the lives of the Adi people. The people cannot and will not sign away Siang, and yet Pema Khandu, CM of Arunachal Pradesh, has faked signatures for the Pre Feasibility Report Memorandum of Understanding (PFR MoU).
The struggle for Siang is the same struggle waged for the Jal-Jangal-Jameen-Izzat-Adhikar by the Adivasi people all over India. The Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist State attempts to corporatize on the people’s land and resources and displace them, and then brutally and violently punishes all opposition against it. They come under the disguise of development and national security and sell our land to the Compradors like Adani, Ambani, Tata, Vedanta and others.
The tactics of the Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist Indian State of looting and oppressing indigenous people is not new, and neither is the repression carried out by the machinery to suppress all voices of opposition. States like Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Mizoram among other states are being attacked for their land and resources under the garb of development.
This is the imperialist model of development which the Indian state is trying to impose to serve its imperialist masters. Not only should we make organized efforts against the anti-people project in Arunachal Pradesh but also wage a militant struggle against the Brahmanical Hindutva Fascist state to establish an actual people’s government. The development that does not serve the broader masses of our society must be rejected and fought against by all means possible.
We strongly condemn the Indian state’s fascist attempt to destroy the Siang and displace its people for the sake of their imperialist model of development. We condemn the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist State’s efforts to suppress the dissenting masses and brutally punish the protestors demanding their rights. We demand a stop to SUMP immediately, and immediate demilitarisation of Siang Valley, as well as the unconditional release of all activists arrested in this protest, namely, Adum Tayom, Okut Paloh, Oson Paron, Atul Jerang, Tajong Talom, Omak Paron and Ebo Mili.
BHAGAT SINGH CHHATRA EKTA MANCH (bsCEM)
Bhaago Matt, Duniya Ko Badlo
