TURA/SHILLONG, July 26: Peeved with a “non-responsive” union home minister Amit Shah to the demand for imposition of Inner Line Permit in Meghalaya, seven major student and social groups in the state have decided to raise the bar for the ILP protest.
While the KSU, FKJGP, HNYF and RBYF will be leading the protest in the Khasi and Jaintia hills region, back in the Garo Hills, the Tengsak Momin faction of the GSU along with the A’chik Youth Welfare Organisation (AYWO) and the Association for Democracy andEmpowerment (ADE) will be leading the agitation.
“In view of the pandemic we will not hold any rallies but we will go in for widespread poster campaigns seeking the ILP. We have been extremely disappointed with the union home minister’s visit to our state because he did not even bother to hear us out on the need for the ILP,” a disappointed ADE president Dalseng Bira Ch Momin told The Shillong Times on Monday.
He mentioned that as news percolated down to the Garo Hills about Shah’s failure to discuss the issue with the protest groups, some angry members of the GSU, ADE and AYWO burned the effigy of the union home minister outside the CM’s mini secretariat in Dakopgre, Tura on Sunday morning.
According to Momin, their protesting organizations will also hold black flags and the agitation will not just be on Tura but all major towns and villages of the region.
“The demand for ILP is very much strong across Garo Hills and we will not back down on this issue,” warns the ADE president.
KSU asks MLAs to protest for ILP
The KSU has asked the legislators in the state to register their protest against the Centre’s silence on the “genuine” demand of the people for the implementation of ILP.
“I think it is the duty of the state’s elected representatives to formulate a strategy to be with the people since ILP is an issue to protect the state’s indigenous community,” KSU president Lambokstar Marngar said on Monday.
“We have waited for nearly two years since the resolution was passed in the Assembly for the implementation of ILP. It is time for the MLAs to be more aggressive on it,” he insisted.
Marngar said the legislators should decide what steps they should take to make their voices heard by the Centre. He said the democratic movement of the pressure groups for ILP will continue.
“We will chalk out what kind of a protest we should stage given the COVID-19 situation. We will not stop agitating until the Centre implements ILP in the state,” the KSU president said.
He said the pressure groups will soon meet and chalk out their next course of action. They had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday but he did not make any commitment on the implementation of ILP.
Meanwhile, North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) chairman, Samuel Jyrwa said it was unfortunate that Shah remained non-committal on the demand.
“There was a great expectation that the Union Home Minister would speak on the issues affecting the state,” Jyrwa, who is also a former KSU president, said.
He said the government did its bit by passing a resolution demanding the implementation of ILP.
“It appears that the Centre feels the state’s microscopic indigenous population does not require any special protection. But if they consider we are a part and parcel of India, then they should fulfill our genuine demands,” Jyrwa said.
