TURA, Feb 7: Agitating groups from Garo Hills, who are opposing the appointment of Rakesh Newar Sangma as the chief Executive Member of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, on Monday justified their stand and gave a number of reasons why the Babelapara MDC cannot be accepted as the CEM.
In a joint statement, the groups comprising GSU, FKJGP, ADE, FAF, AYWO and NESO, pointed out that during their school life, Rakesh and his siblings always identified themselves as ‘Newar’ and not ‘Sangma’ which was later changed to Newar Sangma in college.
The groups claimed that it was only prior to the GHADC elections that he filed an affidavit and started identifying himself as Rakesh A Sangma.
“We suspect that it was politically conducive for him to identify himself as a bona-fide Garo to contest the election as the seat (Babelapara) from which he contested was a tribal majority electorate and people may not have taken very kindly to a non-tribal candidate,” they stated.
The groups added that though Rakesh’s mother belongs to the Agitok clan, none of his family members has ever practiced the matrilineal culture of the Garo society.
“As per the Garo matrilineal culture, a person after marriage has to leave their parents’ house to live with their wives and prioritise his wife’s clan over his own, however, both Rakesh Newar Sangma and his brother made their wives leave their parents’ house and live with their in-laws. This is not the only unusual thing about their family — it is an open secret that Rakesh Newar Sangma and his family members have never lived as per the Garo culture and never practiced the Garo culture their whole life.
“Neither do their family’s rites and rituals nor religious beliefs align with that of the Garo society. They have always practiced the culture, tradition and religious beliefs of their father, who belongs to the Newar clan of the Nepali community. We are pointing out these facts not to malign him or his family members; however, these facts are important to be mentioned to understand our opposition to him being appointed as the CEM of GHADC,” the groups said.
“Our greatest objection to Rakesh A Sangma being elected as the CEM is because the GHADC chief exercises judicial power of the highest authority in the Council in all traditional civil cases. The civil cases involve sensitive issues in regards to our traditional institutions and land. Nokmas who are the guardian of our A.kings (land owned by a clan) is appointed by the CEM of the GHADC, any dispute between two A.kings will be judged by the CEM, any dispute within a clan and an A.king over the right of ownership of Nokmas will be judged by the CEM, designation of New A.kings for any clan will be ordered by the CEM and the list goes on. “These judicial powers of the CEM are of great significance for the preservation of the identity of the Garos and preservation of the culture of the Garo society as A.kings and Nokmas are pivotal in the determination of the Garo identity. How can a person who has never lived his life following the Garo culture and tradition give his verdict on such sensitive issues?” they questioned.
The groups made an appeal to all political leaders of the state in general and the politicians of Garo Hills in particular to take note of their concerns and overturn the decision to appoint Rakesh A Sangma as the CEM of GHADC.
A separate appeal was also made to the CEM to resign from the post owing moral responsibility.
The groups, while reminding of the night road blockade being called all over Garo Hills from February 8 to 11, warned that until and unless Rakesh A Sangma is removed from his post or he voluntarily steps down, the civil disobedience movement would continue and more stringent steps would follow under different phases.
“The only reason we put on hold our NCM is owing to the examination schedule of different Boards and Universities, and we appeal the people of Garo Hills to be ready for further NCMs and other demonstrations whenever there is a break in the exam dates. We also appeal to all institutions that we will only bar the Board and University exams and any internal exams if coinciding with our demonstrations be postponed for another date/dates in the interest of the Garo cause,” they added.