SHILLONG: Tennydard M Marak, who is following up the ST status case of chief minister Mukul Sangma wanted a “Mukul mukt Meghalaya”, while referring to Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who wanted a BJP mukt Meghalaya.
In a letter to Rahul quoting media reports on Thursday, the political activist said that former Home Minister RG Lyngdoh had also commented once that “More than Congress, people were unhappy with Mukul” which is true and the ground reality is that Rahul does not want to admit this fact.
According to Marak, what surprises him is that neither Sonia Gandhi, the former President of the Indian National Congress nor Rahul Gandhi, have understood the sentiments of the indigenous tribal people of Meghalaya and they were not bothered to protect the identity of the indigenous tribal people which is in danger because ineligible persons ( chief minister Mukul Sangma), who wrongly as well as falsely obtained the social status certificates will deprive the rights of the indigenous genuine scheduled tribes as enshrined in the Constitution of the benefits conferred on them by the Constitution of India.
According to Tennydard, while Sonia had asked the Meghalaya government not to dilute the customary laws, the surprising fact is that the chief minister had diluted the very customary laws of the Garos by fraudulently obtaining the Scheduled Tribe certificate by manipulating the truth and concealing the vital fact that his mother’s name is Rousanara Begum , a Muslim by birth belonging to Nagaon District of the state of Assam and in order to derive illegal benefits reserved for the Scheduled Tribes Garo , he has forcefully tried to convert his mother Rousanara Begum to Rousanara Sangma which according to Marak is nothing but an act of forceful assimilation, which is not acceptable under any circumstances. Marak also quoted the United Nations Declaration on the indigenous people to highlight the rights of people of Meghalaya.
He also referred to the recent Judgment of January 19 by Supreme Court which said”, there cannot be any dispute that the caste is determined by birth and the caste cannot be changed by marriage with a person of Scheduled Caste.”
He predicted that the caste certificates of Mukul and his brother will be cancelled and confiscated by the concerned authorities in no time based on the line of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, but the indigenous scheduled tribes of Meghalaya are waiting eagerly for a positive response in the interest of justice.
