Editor,
Why the slew of condemnations against the KSU? To commemorate an anniversary that occurred nearly 200 years ago when the Khasi warriors, under the able leadership of U Syiem Tirot Sing launched the first audacious attack on the British at Nongkhlaw, the KSU organized a massive night procession on the April 4, 2013 from Madam lewrynghep to Motphran. However preceding this KSU foot-marching there were some reported unsavoury incidents along the Laitumkhrah main road. In the wake of these episodes most of the denizens of the city and elsewhere were virtually up in arms against KSU and its leadership for such reprehensible actions. And wonders never cease that within hardly a 10 hour gap your Letters to the Editor columns were glutted with correspondences vehemently casting aspersions on KSU for the alleged misadventures. These slew of denouncements appeared to never die down even after several days in these letter columns without entertaining any other write-up other than the non-stop jibes at the KSU and their well-wishers. To add insult to injury, some writers have even ventured to suggest an army mobilization to combat the unarmed KSU. It utterly beats me how such bloomers that make a mountain out of a mole hill are being accommodated in your popular daily?
What is more disconcerting is the fact that a good number of these letter-writers have stemmed from my own Hynniewtrep folks! I hope that our own brethren will fearlessly raise their voice irrespective of their kith and kin in the event of any misdemeanor being committed by the latter. Furthermore, even in normal times I am used to hearing my very own tribe compare KSU to a group of rabble-rousers or to a community of philistines who are invariably hell bent on creating public nuisance, do not nurse on iota of patriotism and unselfconsciously raise grotesque slogan of’ ‘Khasi by birth and Indian by accident’. Incidentally, several years ago I overheard a conversation between two Khasi ladies who asserted that it was only on their dead bodies that they would allow their wards to join such Union as the KSU. A few years later, the KSU under the presidentship of Paul Lyngdoh, organized a hunger strike at the Don Bosco Square, Laitumkhrah, and one of their charter of demands was to enhance the extant percentage quota on
technical studies in Medical, Engineering streams etc. in favour of Khasi-Jaintia tribes and when this social movement launched by KSU had taken the land of Hynniewtrep by storm and all stood to a man in lending support to such a refreshingly noble movement and as this movement continued, I again overheard that one of the two Khasi ladies in question who had earlier condemned the KSU had confessedly rued the deep-rooted prejudice she had harboured against this student union given the fact that her own son could not pursue medical courses on Government quota despite his having secured 70% mark-aggregate as against the much lower marks secured by others in the panel of tribal quota. I’m given to understand that this lady has now become an avowed KSU enthusiast.
The above case is just one of the glaring examples that there are still a vast majority of our tribe who adopt a spirit of bete noire against KSU but when the chips are down they will have to uncover their blinkered cynicism against this popular student organization.
Yours etc.,
Jerome Diengdoh
Shillong – 1
Implementation of UID in Meghalaya
Editor,
Apropos to the news item published in The Shillong Times’ dated 24th April, 2013, regarding ongoing process for issue of ‘AADHAAR’ Card, for all-the residents of India, having a unique number with biometric information to every Indian resident within the next couple of years, I wish to point out to the Government of Meghalaya that despite having signed the MoU with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in July, 2010 for implementing the project in Meghalaya, the Government is yet to show any creative action till date for reasons best known to it. But the general public of the state have the right to know the actual facts behind its
deliberate delay. As per the norms laid down by UIDAI, the issue of UID, though compulsory, remains a state subject. It is a fact that it has a lot of benefits especially for the people of rural areas living below the poverty line (BPL) and who are deprived of various financial support extended by the Union Government. My intention is not to focus on the irregularities which have been taking place for so long, in the manner in which benefits have been extended to the poor but to express my view that the AADHAAR Card will prevent pilferage in direct cash transfer benefits against different schemes and such will also reach the poor residents of the State in due time. Moreover, once an unique number is allotted, irrespective of male or female, old or infant, one can proudly say that he/she is a genuine Indian, irrespective of his/her caste or creed. The law makers of the State have a duty to ensure the implementation of the AADHAAR scheme at the earliest. Hopefully this will also curb future influx since every genuine Indian citizen only will be issued this card.
Yours etc.
P B Das
Shillong-3