SHILLONG, Nov 17: The Bengali residents of Shillong, who have lived here since the advent of the British raj, have expressed their indignation at being dubbed as “foreigners” and “outsiders” and urged the Meghalaya Government to treat them as “co-passengers” in the journey of Meghalaya.
As a sequel to the recent attempt at describing “all Meghalaya Bengalis as Bangladeshis”, some prominent Bengali residents, submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma last week (released to media on Tuesday), expressing “shock” and “pain” at such “audacious statement”. Such a statement was “an insult to our long and historical relationship with the hill brethren and our pride as citizens of India”, they said.
The memorandum urged the chief minister to provide the ethnic minorities like the Bengalis all constitutional and legal rights and to bring about an end to, what they called, the untold harassment of and discrimination against the citizens.
Making a mention of the community’s long association with the hill people, the signatories to the memorandum made a suggestion for crafting out a clear-cut government policy for safeguarding rights of the ethnic, linguistic, religious minorities as enshrined in the constitution. The memorandum demanded fulfilment of the commitment made by the first chief minister Captain WA Sangma on the floor of the Assembly in 1973 for allotting 15% of government jobs to the non-tribals.
It also suggested that there should be an institutional mechanism for protection of the minorities like the Bengalis.
Regarding trade license, the memorandum urged the chief minister to prevail upon the District Councils to act in accordance with constitution and law.
The residents also took note of the “hate speech” and “incitement of communal antagonism” spread through the media, the memorandum called upon the government to take all legal measures for curbing such inflammatory statements.
The memorandum, which was signed by 80 residents of Shillong, recalled that the Bengalis wholeheartedly supported and participated in the Hill State movement launched by the erstwhile All Party Hill Leaders’ Conference (APHLC) in the sixties.
It also drew the attention of the chief minister to the fact that the APHLC leaders had made a solemn commitment to the Government of India that once the Hill State was created, the non-tribal residents of the new state would be protected.
The signatories decried that instead of protecting them, there was “an open threat” to their existence in the state.
Referring to the riots of 1979 when 50 Bengalis lost their lives, hundreds of families were uprooted, houses put on fire and shops plundered, they said that there was neither any reparation nor the guilty punished.
“After five decades of the creation of the new state, we are convinced in pointing out that a majoritarian overtone has crept into the system thereby creating existential problems for us.” The memorandum recalled that “the Bengalis have had nurtured an umbilical relationship with the Khasis, the Garos and the Jaintias” from ancient times and stated that the community had lived here as “inseparable part of the 150 years of journey that Shillong and later Meghalaya have witnessed.”
Owing to some of the unwelcome developments, many Bengali residents had left Shillong for good and that their community presence in the town had dwindled in the past four decades.
Pleading with the chief minister for taking “path-breaking” actions towards a long-term solution to the “divide being created between local tribes and the Bengalis in particular and non-tribals in general”, the signatories observed that such actions would help strengthen the age-old relationship between the hill tribes and the Bengalis, while retaining “Shillong’s cosmopolitan character and making Meghalaya a truly progressive state.”
Among others who signed the memorandum are former MP, Dr BB Dutta, retired VC of Assam University Dr JB Bhattacharjee, retired IAS officer PC Chakraborty, former minister Manas Chaudhuri, scail activist Naba Bhattacharjee and litterateur Uma Purkayastha, besides a host of lawyers, doctors, teachers, professionals and businessmen.