By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The KHNAM has come down heavily on the Congress party for falsely claiming that they have procured the requisite mandate by opposing implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the State.
“The Congress party has been boasting that the people have rejected the implementation of ILP by referring to the total number of votes which the KHNAM had secured in the 2013 Assembly election. We feel that the Congress party needs to do some serious homework before making false projections on the total number of votes garnered by the KHNAM,” senior leader of the party, James Ban Basaiawmoit, told newsmen here on Wednesday.
Quoting poll figures, Basaiawmoit said that the Congress had managed to poll 4,58,783 votes (34.78 per cent of the overall votes) in the 60 seats it had contested while managing to win 29 seats.
“This means that out of the total 13,19,039 votes polled during the February election, the total non-Congress votes worked out to be 8,60,256,” Basaiawmoit said.
“Despite failing to secure 50 per cent of the total votes polled, it is surprising that the Congress party dares to claim that the mandate is against the implementation of the ILP,” the KHNAM leader said.
Earlier, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma had pointed out that the KHNAM, which had vowed to implement the ILP in its election manifesto, had failed to win even a single seat.
While rejecting the claim of the Chief Minister, Basaiawmoit said that the majority votes against the Congress party proves that people here are open to the idea of having the ILP as a mechanism to check influx into Meghalaya.
Meanwhile, KHNAM working president Adelbert Nongrum said that he fully subscribes to the view that arguments concerning the protection of the indigenous population are always ’emotional’.
“I do not see anything wrong in being emotional if it concerns the interests of the indigenous tribals,” Nongrum said.
Surprisingly, KHNAM general secretary Batkupar Wahlang, claimed that the genuine non-indigenous population in the State are ‘in favour’ of ILP as it would only safeguard them.
Making his point clear to the Chief Minister on how ILP should be implemented in the State, Wahlang said that no one can enter the Secretariat premises without obtaining a valid pass.
“In the same way, the ILP can be implemented across the State after which people from outside will not be able to enter the State without a valid permit, and on leaving the State, they would need to surrender the permit,” Wahlang said.
At the same time, he also challenged the Congress party to an open debate on the ILP issue.