At the time of independence, there were less than 100 kilometres of roads, three schools with fifty students, one hospital and three dispensaries in Arunachal Pradesh! This in a state that is twice the size of Switzerland! There are twenty-six major tribes and over 100 sub-tribes in the state. Traditionally, they used to trade with people in the Assam plains. They very rarely had any dealings with the Tibetans across the Himalayas except the Monpa, Memba, Khamba, Mishmi and Sherdukpen tribes in the north. The people of Arunachal are fiercely patriotic and nationalistic and take umbrage at the Chinese laying claims over areas of their state. During my tenure I have witnessed a number of events where the people of Arunachal have expressed their anti-Chinese feelings. The youth organizations have held a ‘dharna’ at ‘Jantar Mantar’ in New Delhi, taken a motorcycle rally with anti-China placards upto Bumla on the border, banned Chinese goods in the local markets and burnt the effigies of Chinese prime minister as a protest against the issue of stapled visas being given to people from Arunachal Pradesh.
Arunachal Pradesh is the only state in the northeast where Hindi is universally spoken. In fact, it has become a link language amongst the people as most Arunachalees do not understand the language or dialect spoken by tribes other than their own. The state has come a long way now, with the focus on vitally important infrastructure development. A greenfield airport will come up at Itanagar, and across the state, eight subsidiary airfields are being upgraded and extended for short-take-off-and-landing aircraft. As mentioned earlier, a trans-Arunachal highway is under construction, which will enhance connectivity manifold by joining the major valleys laterally and link up with most district HQs. During a recent visit, I was happy to see the progress being made in the construction of the state legislative assembly, the civil secretariat and the housing project for the members of the assembly. These projects, alongwith the drinking water supply scheme, would change the face of Itanagar upon their completion by 2012–13. The state is eagerly looking forward to December 2012, when the railway connectivity with the rest of the country is scheduled to be established (see Sketch 35.1).
During my Republic Day speech in 2010, I made an appeal for a clean, green and plastic-free Arunachal Pradesh. I have ensured that the Raj Bhawan’s people-friendly initiatives do not tread on the toes of the executive and, in fact, act as force multipliers to their efforts. Yet some may consider these steps as being proactive. For me the oath taken at the time of my swearing-in is supreme, and I believe that I am only doing my duty.
Democracy has struck deep roots in Arunachal Pradesh. The people exercise their franchise enthusiastically. Despite the allurements which various candidates promise, they generally vote for the best candidate. The fact that some bigwigs failed to get elected to the current legislative assembly is an indicator that the will of the people prevails. The message is loud and clear: the votes will be cast for someone who will deliver. Elections were conducted peacefully with impressive turnouts for the panchayat (79.16 per cent), Parliament (68.16 per cent) and the state assembly (79.5 per cent). In a poll carried out by India Today (27 December 2010), an overwhelming majority of Arunachalees said they were proud to be Indians, and felt that China was not justified in showing their state as part of it. It is a matter of pride for us that on 24 February 2011, Arunachal Pradesh was conferred the CNN-IBN and IBN7 Diamond State Award as the best performing state amongst the smaller states of India.
Although there are only a few hundred retired servicemen in the state, I was astonished to see that the state ex-servicemen (ESM) board was almost defunct. Hardly any of the benefits announced by the government or the ministry of defence for the veterans were being passed down to them. This dormant organization was kick-started and a few meetings and rallies were held thereafter. There is now a functional but ad-hoc set up for the ESM to take care of their needs. As proposed by me, a state-level rally was held on 4 December 2010 where we were able to get to know the veteran’s problems. On the occasion, the chief minister, Dorjee Khandu, assured the gathering that he would create a full-fledged state soldiers board and look into the issues raised by the veterans. We have held a number of recruitment rallies to encourage the youth to join the armed forces and contain the rising unemployment. Besides that I have been pushing to raise additional NCC units, including a naval wing. We are hopeful that under the leadership of Lieutenant General P.S. Bhalla, the desired expansion of the NCC in Arunachal Pradesh would become a reality.
On 30 April 2011, a shocking and unfortunate event took place. Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu’s helicopter took off from Tawang at 9.56 a.m. and ran into bad weather around the Se La pass. The chopper lost contact with the base and went missing. The spell of exceptionally heavy weather with snow and rain hampered search and rescue operations for the next few days. The crash site and the bodies were located after an intense search of four days. Dorjee Khandu had come to symbolize the strength of our democratic traditions, having served in the army and rising from the social fabric of Arunachal to become the chief minister for a second term. His humanitarian values, humility and simplicity endeared him to all. He will be remembered as one of the finest chief ministers the state has seen.
The Congress legislative party met on 5 May 2011 to elect a new leader. After hectic parleys, Jarbom Gamlin was chosen as the next chief minister. He was very close to Dorjee Khandu and soon after his swearing in, announced that he would complete the projects and plans undertaken by his predecessor. The swearing in of his council of ministers was conducted on 20 May. Unfortunately, Jarbom Gamlin’s tenure was cut short due to political turbulence caused by various factors. Dissent against his government kept increasing by the day. Finally, after a period of uncertainty coupled with law and order problems during five months of Gamlin’s rule, the Congress decided to make a change of guard. After due consultations with the elected members of the assembly and other people’s representatives, it nominated Nabam Tuki as the new chief minister. His swearing in was conducted at the Raj Bhawan by me on 1 November 2011.Tuki couldn’t have got a luckier beginning as he was asked to receive an award in the ‘most improved small states’ category from Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister of India, on 4 November 2011. These awards have been instituted by India Today magazine. We hope to maintain our position in 2012 also. A grassroots politician, Nabam Tuki is proving to be a worthy successor to Dorjee Khandu and is focusing on development projects and good governance. This augurs well for Arunachal Pradesh and its people. I have always maintained that the people of the state should be the biggest beneficiaries of the development process taking place. At the same time, the indigenous faith, culture and rich traditions must be preserved.
I started my military career from Nagaland in 1965 and later served in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. I shall cap my services to the nation with this tenure as the governor in 2013. In 2010, I was invited to be the chief guest at the Indian Military Academy passing-out parade of the 112th Regular Course. It was a great honour to be back at my alma mater from whose haloed portals I had graduated forty-seven years ago. This occasion became all the more memorable as my ninety-year-old father, who had passed out from the same academy in 1943, was also present. Excerpts of my address to the cadets are given in Appendix 10.