By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 4: The state government has been apparently caught off guard by the sudden decision of the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to pull out of the tripartite peace talks as it chose to remain silent on the move of the outfit on Thursday.
Three official spokespersons of the MDA 2.0 government declined to speak on the issue. Even the social media-savvy Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma refrained from posting anything on any of his social media handles.
This has triggered speculations that the government is not serious about the HNLC’s demands, as the outfit has alleged. According to another school of thought, the top brass may have yet to come out of the festive stupor to react on a sensitive issue.
The BJP, a constituent of the government, has expressed concern over the HNLC withdrawing from the peace process. The party’s state president, Rikman G Momin appealed to the extremist group to resume talks with the state government or the Centre directly.
The HNLC move has worried the Khasi Students’ Union. The student body said the Centre should not have a problem in fulfilling the five core demands of the outfit to ensure that the peace talks move ahead.
The regional parties and allies of the NPP-led MDA government are learnt to be initiating internal discussions on the issue.
The HNLC on Wednesday announced its decision to withdraw from the tripartite peace talks with the Centre and the state government, stating that the demand for general amnesty to its cadres was not met. In a letter to Centre’s interlocutor AK Mishra, the HNLC’s self-styled chairman and commander-in-chief Bobby Marwein said, “We deeply regret to inform you that we are reluctantly withdrawing ourselves from the peace talks with your government. This decision has been made due to the unfortunate circumstance that our general demands have not been met.”
The HNLC’s general secretary cum publicity secretary, Sainkupar Nongtraw said the decision was in response to the government’s lack of seriousness in addressing the core demands of the group.
