SHILLONG, Sep 28: UDP working president Paul Lyngdoh on Wednesday took a dig at opposition Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Sangma for questioning the incumbent MDA Government on misgovernance and alleged corruption by making a Biblical reference saying: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.”
“Anybody has the right to say to say anything. But does he have the moral authority and moral higher ground to cast that first stone?” Lyngdoh said, making it amply clear that his remark did not mean that the MDA leaders were angels.
Admitting that the level of corruption in the ruling dispensation was high, Lyngdoh recalled the anomalies that had come to the fore during Sangma’s tenure as chief minister.
RSS chief’s statement condemned
Lyngdoh also took strong exception to the recent statement of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat that “everyone living in Bharat is already a Hindu” and said that nobody, however high or mighty, can change the course of history through a few lines of speech.
“We have always called ourselves Khasi or Hynniewtrep. This is our root and nobody can change it,” Lyngdoh asserted.
Referring to one of his recent posts on his social media account, Lyngdoh said the Khasis became colonized because the Britishers could conquer India up to Myanmar for which the Burmese had to sign the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826. “It means that we became part of British India when the Britishers manage to reach as far as Rangoon in 1826. We then became Christians on June 22, 1841 when Rev Thomas Jones arrived at Sohra. We presume the first Christians convert were in 1841,” Lyngdoh said.
Stating that Khasis became Indians in 1947-48, he recalled that the Presidential order in 1950 named the Khasis as one of the Scheduled Tribes.