SHILLONG: Meghalaya Opposition has once again questioned the state government over the manner in which the senior HNLC leader,Chesterfield Thangkhiew came overground and joined mainstream.
Talking to media persons here on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition, Mukul Sangma slammed the Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma over his statement that he was yet to be briefed about the Chesterfield Thangkhiew retiring from the banned group.
“ We have asked Government to be clear on their stand and Chief Minister admitted that he is yet to be briefed and such statements indicates complete disconnect between Chief Minister and other members of the Cabinet,” Sangma said.
Maintaining that the suspension of Operation with ANVC way back in 2004 was not done correctly , he added that as a fallout result, peace eluded Meghalaya and many outfits came up in Garo Hills
Stating that the previous MUA Government invited all the members of the militant outfit to come on board and join the mainstream, the Leader of Opposition questioned as to whether the Government of the day had a standard Operating Procedure for facilitating the entry of the senior member of the banned outfit who came out of the organisation without any arms and ammunition.
“ It should have been the political department which should have taken a call on how to move forward on the matter,” Sangma said while adding that the statement of the Chief Minister and statement of the Government on the floor of the House about its stand on the militant groups were contradicting.
“ We are there to ensure support to the Government for restoring peace but it must be done in a transparent manner,” the former Chief Minister said while adding that the Opposition wants to ensure there is no politico-militant nexus.
Suspecting that the Chief Minister may have kept his colleagues in the Cabinet in dark about the Thangkhiew, he added that the Government must lay parameters while dealing with the issue of militants joining mainstream and holding talks with them.
When asked why the previous government did not engaged with the HNLC when they offered to talk, the former Chief Minister said that the State Government had written to the Union Government about it and since the State was dealing with a banned outfit, the State on its own could not engage with a banned outfit.