SHILLONG: Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Monday criticised former chief minister Mukul Sangma for seeking an inquiry into politician-militant nexus and said the latter never wanted the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to come over ground.
Tynsong’s retaliation comes on a day when the outfit, in a press statement, denounced of the leader of the opposition for making “baseless allegations” against the MDA government on the “retirement” of Cherishstarfield Thangkhiew.
Tynsong told media persons that it was the former HNLC general secretary who revealed that he had personally spoken to former home minister Roshan Warjri on the cadres’ keenness to come over ground but Sangma had rejected the proposal because he has “ego problem”.
“Now it is clear that he (Mukul) never wanted the HNLC to come over ground. Maybe he (Dr Mukul) did not like that the HNLC had talks with his home minister,” the deputy chief minister said.
The HNLC media statement corroborated Tynsong’s claims.
HNLC general secretary cum publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw said the former chief minister’s allegations that the outfit wanted special treatment “is nothing but a political trick” and “we want to make it clear that we do not want to hold peace talks with the puppets in the state government but with the puppeteers from the central government”.
“Time and again we have expressed the willingness to shun the path of violence and come forward to the negotiating table. It was during the tenure of Dr Mukul that we had first declared a unilateral ceasefire to ensure that the peace talks see the light of the day. It was Dr Mukul who had assured us to appoint an interlocutor for pursuing the formalities of peace talks, but nothing concrete happened and we were kept in the darkness. The process derailed and crushed our aspirations. Now the same Dr Mukul is pointing fingers at the MDA government,” the statement said.
Tynsong too said negotiations would have happened during the previous regime had Sangma favoured it.
Lambasting the former chief minister for trying to link him with the banned outfit, Tynsong said his integrity and dignity proves that he had never had any kind of link with any organisation.
“Now because of his failure he has come with the allegations that Tynsong is having a connection with the banned militant outfit,” Tynsong said.
Earlier, the leader of the opposition had asked the government and investigating agencies to probe into the surrender of the most wanted HNLC leader before the deputy chief minister recently.
Meanwhile, HNLC claimed that Sangma had link with a Garo outfit and had taken its help to win elections.
“Everyone in the state, especially in Garo Hills, knows that how close was Dr Mukul to the former chairman of ANVC Dilash Mark and how he used them to win elections. He had even helped the younger brother of the former chairman ANVC to stand up for elections from Garo hills. During the congress regime even Deborah Marak had open links with the GNLA and had in fact taken their help during elections,” Nongtraw said.
