Bernard asks NGOs not to take credit for Garo settlement

SHILLONG: Former chairman of ANVC-B Bernard N Marak has said that credit for the ‘Garo Settlement’ goes to the people of Garo Hills and the Garo NGOs should not take credit for the ANVC group’s peace talk.
“Garo NGOs should not take credit for the ANVC group’s peace talk and the settlement. It was the outcome of the sacrifices of many young people for the cause of the Garos,” he said.
He said that ANVC groups are grateful to the BJP government for acknowledging the Garo struggle and starting peace talks, later bringing it to the settlement.
The ‘Garo Settlement’ was the aspiration of the people which materialised only after ten years of dialogues, he added.
“Groups who are trying to take credit for the ANVC talks have no idea how difficult it was for ANVC during the negotiating years. The demand to strengthen the present Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) through an amendment to the Sixth Schedule was initiated only after understanding the ground realities and manipulations of the Congress in the past years, which needed immediate rectification,” Marak said adding that the ‘Garo Settlement’ is a remedy to the cancer which was destroying Garo Hills.
Pointing out at the special provisions in the Constitution for the Hill tribals, he said the misconceptions led to manipulations of the scheduled areas and destroyed the unique fabrication of the Garo society.
“What we did through the agreement is the answer to many questions which every tribal sought for years. We gave the answers, we found the remedy,” Marak said.
Hitting out at the NGOs, Marak said, “Social organisations never tried to understand our views but moved as their political patrons guided them, which everyone is aware of. Some of them even propagated against our settlement during the Congress rule and did nothing to help us when government tried to subdue our struggles. They only raised their heads to take credit for what the slain cadres achieved through their sacrifices”.
ANVC and ANVC-B know that Congress did nothing to help the people of Garo Hills neither did they do anything to speed up the settlement and implement the agreed text in true spirit, he alleged.
“It was only after BJP came to power that settlement took place and our groups disbanded with hopes of better life for the people of Garo Hills. Even today, we are disappointed over non-implementation of the agreement by the present government and none of the social organisations reasoned with the government,” Marak said.
The former ANVC-B leader reiterated that no social groups should take credit for talks that took place for ten years and the settlement adding that they should support and trust them instead of trying to take credit as everything they did was to protect the people from the disaster Congress meted out to the people of Garo Hills.