SHILLONG: The United Democratic Party (UDP) has dared Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma to substantiate his allegation that Opposition parties are having nexus with pro-ILP groups with sufficient evidence.
“If Dr Sangma fails to do so, Opposition parties will raise this issue on the floor of the House during the upcoming session of the State Assembly starting from October 4,” said UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh here on Monday.
Talking to reporters after a special meeting of his party, Lyngdoh said, “The demand for implementation of ILP in the State gained momentum after the constitution of the High Level Committee (HLC) on influx, which was initiated by Dr Sangma himself”.
“But taking a U-turn, the Chief Minister, surprisingly, is now saying that ILP is out of question,” Lyngdoh said adding that the pressure groups have been compelled to agitate due to adamant attitude of Dr Sangma on implementation of ILP.
Lyngdoh said that it was highly irresponsible on the part of the Chief Minister to brand the pressure groups as militants.
“This clearly reflects the lack of depth of the Chief Minister,” Lyngdoh said. According to him, it is totally unjustified to compare pressure groups with militant outfits if any of its members commit violence.
Stop mudslinging: HNYF
Meanwhile, HNYF, one of the pressure groups fighting for implementation of ILP, on Monday said that the political parties should put their heads together instead of engaging in political mudslinging.
Terming the Chief Minister’s statement that there is a political conspiracy behind the demand for ILP as a ‘nervous statement’, the HNYF general secretary Sadon Blah said “There is a political conspiracy on the part of the Chief Minister in not implementing ILP since he believes in vote bank politics.”
Blah said the Chief Minister should remember that the demand of the pressure groups for implementation of ILP was not new. “The demand for implementation of ILP was not made one month ago. It was there much before the Assembly elections and there was no political conspiracy at that point of time,” Blah said adding “At no point of time, the regional parties talked to us on ILP and the issue cropped up during the enrollment of voters prior to the elections”.