The students’ union is not mincing words — and the state government would do well to listen.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union has thrown its full weight against a state government plan to hold a consultative meeting on whether the Kachari community of Namsai and Changlang districts should be granted Scheduled Tribe status in Arunachal Pradesh. AAPSU is demanding the July 13 meeting be cancelled outright — and it is not treating this as a request. It is a warning.
What the Government Is Planning
The Department of Social Justice & Empowerment and Tribal Affairs has convened the meeting for July 13 at the Civil Secretariat in Itanagar, to be chaired by the Chief Secretary. Representatives of the All Arunachal Pradesh Kachari Community Development Council, the Sonowal Kachari Jatiya Parishad, and the All Arunachal Pradesh Sonowal Kachari Students’ Union have been invited to the table. On paper, it looks like a routine consultative exercise. For AAPSU, it is anything but.
“Firm and Non-Negotiable”
AAPSU president Meje Taku did not soften his language. He described the union’s position as “firm and non-negotiable,” arguing that extending Scheduled Tribe recognition to communities not indigenous to Arunachal Pradesh would undermine the constitutional and legal safeguards protecting the state’s tribal population. He went further, saying that Arunachal Pradesh is a 100 per cent tribal state, protected by the Inner Line Permit regime under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, precisely because the land, resources, and political rights belong exclusively to its indigenous people. Granting ST status to a non-indigenous group, he warned, would strike at the very foundation of that protection. It’s a serious claim — and one that resonates deeply across the state’s indigenous communities.
The Precedent Problem
Here is where things get even more complicated. The Sonowal Kachari community already enjoys Scheduled Tribe (Plains) status in neighbouring Assam. AAPSU’s question is simple: why should Arunachal Pradesh extend that status further? The union warns that relaxing the criteria for ST recognition could create a precedent for similar claims by other communities with historical or ethnolinguistic links to the state — potentially altering the demographic and political balance of a state that has a population of fewer than 15 lakh and is home to 26 major indigenous tribes. That is not a hypothetical fear. It is a legitimate concern that any responsible government must address before moving ahead.
A Warning, Not Just a Statement
AAPSU has warned that if the meeting proceeds as planned, it will intensify its campaign, and that responsibility for any resulting instability would rest squarely with the government. The union has called on the Chief Secretary to cancel the July 13 meeting entirely and reaffirm that ST status in Arunachal Pradesh will remain restricted to the state’s existing indigenous tribes. This is not the first time identity and tribal rights have sparked tension in the Northeast, and it will not be the last.
But the way the government handles this moment — whether it listens or proceeds regardless — will say everything about whose interests it truly serves.
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