Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma’s reference to talks with the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) is quixotic. Who does the government talk to? It is only after a very long and studied silence that the Bangladesh based, Secretary of the outfit Cherister Thangkhiew gave some kind of amorphous statement. What is even more curious is that PT Sawkmie the former MLA of Mawlai is joining the peace talks rhetoric. Governments cannot be talking to every group that picks up arms, cooks up a jingoistic alibi and intimidates the entire state and citizenry. A militant outfit can be taken seriously if the ideology it propounds resonates with the public and has public support. Anything else is a self serving agenda that cannot be encouraged. In a democracy, there is enough space for public protests and for dissenting voices to be heard. But taking up arms against the state can only be construed as unconstitutional if not anti-national.
It is often said that one man’s terrorists is another man’s freedom fighter. But this argument can be held up to scrutiny in Meghalaya where the population is not gung-ho about a liberation or secessionist movement. And if there are areas of governance that require to be hauled up, there are many pressure groups that take up issues from time to time. For some individuals to become hardliners and push the government into a corner in order to extract concessions is not a very democratic method and does not have public support. Talks with militant outfits must come with tough pre-conditions. They will have to go through due processes of law and their assets need to be confiscated. Rehabilitation packages must be discouraged since they become the route for all able bodied youth to join these outfits and then surrender so that they get easy accommodation into the system. Intelligence agencies should assess the numerical strength of all the militant outfits in Meghalaya and their fire power. Why would any government bend over backwards and make compromises with law breakers whose ideologies have no public resonance?