Police action in Meghalaya has been vilified without an impartial assessment of the situation on the ground. Calling Meghalaya a police state can win political brownie points for politicians sitting in the Opposition and always looking to rake up issues with an eye on pandering to a certain constituency. But what do police do when a mob is on a rampage? Do they move back and allow the mob to have its way simply because it is assumed that the mob is always right? The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board (MSPCB) should have known that there would be resistance to the idea of expanding the acreage for limestone mining in an area that is within the precincts of the Narpuh Wildlife Sanctuary which harbours the last of the hoolock gibbons. In the first place, is it ecologically feasible to have seven or eight cement companies in one District of the State? How did the cement companies manage to get their clearances from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and (MoEF) and who actually conducted the environmental impact assessment (EIA) which qualified these companies to set up shop so close to a wildlife sanctuary? These companies all came up during the Congress-led ministry under DD Lapang.
In 2007 March, the late JD Rymbai who was the then Chief Minister had to step down and was replaced by DD Lapang according to the diktat of the Congress High Command in Delhi. The reason for the replacement was because Rymbai was not granting permission to the cement companies to start their businesses. The moment DD Lapang held the reins in Meghalaya all the cement companies kick-started their businesses. What is surprising is that there was no resistance to the setting up of these companies by the local people then. Did they not know of the long-term consequences of having polluting industries so close to the villages? Even at the last public hearing at Thangskai it was not as if all the people of the area were against the mining expansion plans of a certain cement company. There was a division and part of the melee was also created by the two rival groups.
The cement companies know how things work in Meghalaya hence they appoint local tribals as directors who will be their frontline supporters. Hence there is Phone Syih a Jaintia from the area who is a director of four cement companies and three mining companies among others. In all these tussles provoked by internal rivalries the police are caught in a bind. They have to control the situation and if people are injured they are accused of brutality. In the procession carried out by the FKJGP through the city of Shillong in October 2022, there was large-scale violence on the streets of Shillong. The police refrained from taking strong action and were accused of not doing their duty. The police have to do their job. They cannot appease any politician or political party or the Government of the day. The mob cannot be allowed to run amok.
