SHILLONG: John F Kharshiing, Spokesperson, Federation of Khasi States, said that while the entire country was debating about the IOA of J& K there is another yet to be talked about IOA of Khasi & Jaintia Hills.
He observed this after participating in the academic discourse – Article 370 – Perspective held in the city on Saturday attended by panelist representatives from political parties such as BJP, INC, UDP, professors from NEHU and Synod College besides Khalid Khan, Senior Advocate.
The seminar was organised by Meghalaya College Teachers Association (MCTA)
Kharshiing supported the views of H Shrikant, Head of Department of political science, NEHU about the need for consent of the people prior to any major changes in law and that the affected people need to be consulted if the change in law was to be effective.
Kharshiing also said the preamble of the Constitution had the words “We the people”. However these words were sometimes misleading as the instrument of Accession and Annexed Agreement signed on August 17, 1948 between the Centre and the Khasi States was yet to be resolved and urged the Centre to show urgency in addressing the issues of the Khasis and Nagas in the same way the urgency was shown to address the Kashmir problem.
He reiterated that the constitutional anomaly was that the Khasi states were unconstitutionally merged with Assam not in accordance with Article 290A and 290(b) of the Government of India Act 1935.
While thanking the MCTA for organising such a seminar on Article 370, Kharshiing requested the association to also conduct a similar seminar on accession terms of the Federation of Khasi States to India.
