SHILLONG, April 10: The Congress has slammed Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma for organising massive rallies and concerts to woo voters ahead of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) elections by allegedly ignoring the COVID-19 protocols.
“He is ignoring the state protocols. When the head of the state ignores the norms, why would the public adhere to them? And why should the cops penalize the public on the road for violation of COVID-19 protocols when they cannot take a similar action against the CM and his entourage for a similar offence?” asked Congress MLA, Ampareen Lyngdoh on Saturday.
She described the arbitrary action as “hypocrisy” and an “unhealthy practice” and categorically stated that the law is the same for everyone.
“When people are fined for not wearing a mask, how can the CM have these shows and then get away?” Lyngdoh asked.
“They (Deputy Commissioners) are not allowing us to hold public events but the CM can have rock concerts. This is not the first such instance. We have seen it happen time and again,” she said. The Congress MLA criticised the CM for allegedly putting the lives of people at risk, stating that he is protected after having taken two shots of the vaccines but 99.9% of the people, who attended his shows, are not protected as they have not yet taken the first jab.
The Chief Minister has come under severe criticism after photographs and videos of his events went viral on the social media.
‘GHADC polls should have been deferred’
Lyngdoh said the GHADC polls should have been deferred given the threat from various pressure groups to disrupt the polls. They have certain issues pertaining to the elections.
“I think they (a group of NGOs) have called for a bandh on the polling day. The government should have seen this coming because when NGOs call for a bandh, there is a possibility that the election process will be disrupted,” she said.
The Congress legislator said the government should have by now called for a dialogue with the stakeholders.
“The fact that the government has not been able to address this till today, which is just 48 hours ahead of polling, it will really be unfortunate if the polls are disrupted,” Lyngdoh said.
She said if the major NGOs, which are the eyes and the ears of the public, are speaking up against the electoral process and objecting to the alleged dilution of the Autonomous District Council and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, they must have some logic.
“You can’t consider having the elections on a day when a bandh has been called by the NGOs. I don’t know how things will pan out. I don’t even know if there will be enough presence of police personnel and whether they have organized themselves,” she wondered.
Pointing out that a non-Khasi cannot contest an election in Khasi Hills and a non-Jaintia cannot do so in Jaintia Hills unlike in Garo Hills, she said the observation is that it is diluting the strength of the Sixth Schedule and the government cannot ignore the voices of public.