The Centre has dispatched two Rapid Action Force companies of the Central Reserve Police Force to Arunachal Pradesh following violence in Pasighat during protests against the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, officials said on Sunday.
The Ministry of Home Affairs directed on Saturday that the two companies, comprising about 250 personnel, will be airlifted from Navi Mumbai on board an Indian Air Force transport aircraft. The units will reach Pasighat and get deployed by Sunday, the officials told the Press Trust of India, in a rapid reinforcement of the security presence in the violence-hit town.
The Rapid Action Force is a specialised anti-riot unit of the Central Reserve Police Force, recognisable by its blue uniform and trained specifically for crowd control and restoring order during civil disturbances. Multiple units of the Central Reserve Police Force are already deployed in the violence-affected areas, and Arunachal Pradesh has a permanent deployment of about two to three battalions of the force.
The arrival of the two additional companies is intended to strengthen that presence at a moment when the local administration is working to prevent a further slide into disorder.
Officials said Central Reserve Police Force personnel effectively handled the protests since Friday and ensured the violence did not escalate. They are among the several police and central forces personnel who have been injured in the unrest, a reminder that the security forces deployed to contain the situation have themselves borne the brunt of the clashes.
The violence erupted in Pasighat, the headquarters of East Siang district, on Friday night. According to Arunachal Pradesh Police officials, a mob torched an office of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and a police station, and vandalised the residences of three political leaders, including that of the state Bharatiya Janata Party chief. The office of Adi Baane Kebang, a prominent organisation representing the Adi community, was also vandalised during the unrest.
The immediate trigger was a 12-hour bandh observed on October 23 across Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang districts to oppose the proposed Siang Upper Multipurpose Project. According to a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office, the bandh itself remained largely peaceful on Friday. But violence erupted in Pasighat after the bandh ended and continued till 3.30 am on Saturday, turning a day of protest into a night of arson and vandalism.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu has said the right to peaceful protest was an essential part of democracy, but it was important that demonstrations remained within the bounds of the law and did not result in damage to property or disruption of public order. He said the incidents in Pasighat were regrettable and called upon all sections of society to maintain peace.
The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project has been a source of contention in the region for years. The proposed 11,200-megawatt hydropower project on the Siang river, a major tributary of the Brahmaputra, is among the largest such projects planned in the country. Supporters present it as a strategic and developmental asset, while opponents in the Siang valley fear displacement, environmental damage and the submergence of land that communities have lived on for generations.
Those anxieties have repeatedly spilled onto the streets, and the October 23 bandh was the latest expression of organised opposition to the project.
The decision to airlift Rapid Action Force companies from Navi Mumbai, rather than drawing only on forces already stationed in the northeast, underlines how seriously the Centre is treating the situation.
Airlifting by military transport aircraft is reserved for urgent reinforcements, and the direction from the Home Ministry on Saturday, within hours of the Friday night violence, signals a determination to restore calm quickly and to prevent the unrest from spreading to neighbouring districts.
For the people of Pasighat, the immediate priority is a return to normal life. Shops, schools and offices in a town that has just witnessed arson and vandalism cannot function normally while fear persists, and the presence of additional central forces is meant to provide the reassurance that allows daily life to resume.
At the same time, the underlying dispute over the hydropower project remains unresolved, and the deployment of forces, however necessary in the short term, does not by itself address the concerns that brought protesters onto the streets.
The coming days will show whether the reinforcement succeeds in stabilising the town. Officials have said the forces handled the protests since Friday effectively and kept the violence from escalating further, and the additional companies are expected to consolidate that position.
But lasting calm in the Siang valley will depend on dialogue between the state government, the project authorities and the communities that oppose the project, a process that the Chief Minister's appeal for peace appears designed to encourage.
The Pasighat violence also fits a wider pattern in which large infrastructure projects in ecologically sensitive and densely settled regions generate intense local opposition, and where the line between peaceful protest and violent confrontation can blur quickly once a bandh ends and crowds remain on the streets.
The challenge for the administration is to hold that line, protecting both the right to protest and the safety of people and property, and the arrival of the Rapid Action Force is the Centre's most visible step towards doing so.
As the two companies take up their deployment in Pasighat, the town will be watched closely, both in Itanagar and in New Delhi. The hope among officials is that a strengthened security presence, combined with appeals for calm from the state's political leadership, will bring the situation under control and create the space for the grievances behind the protest to be heard without further violence.
The sequence of events also explains why the reinforcement arrived by air. The bandh on October 23 was observed across three districts, the violence broke out after it ended and ran into the early hours of Saturday, and the Home Ministry's direction followed on Saturday itself, with deployment completed by Sunday.
That pace reflects a deliberate effort to close the gap between an outbreak of disorder and the arrival of reinforcements, a gap during which a tense town can deteriorate quickly if crowds remain mobilised and security numbers are thin.
For the administration, the deployment also buys time for the political track. The state government has to balance the concerns of communities in the Siang valley, who fear the consequences of a very large hydropower project on their land and livelihoods, against the project's backers and the security imperative of preventing further arson and vandalism.
Additional security personnel could be deployed depending on how the situation develops and on operational requirements, according to reports, which means the current reinforcement may not be the last step if calm does not hold.
(Reporting based on The Hindu and Press Trust of India.)