SHILLONG, Jan 14: The leaders of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) are yet to decide whether or not to meet Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to Meghalaya as previous meetings with him were fruitless.
The KSU leaders met Shah thrice to highlight some pending issues such as the implementation of the inner-line permit (ILP) and the inclusion of the Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Home Minister is scheduled to visit the state on January 19 to chair the North East Council’s (NEC) plenary meeting, which will be attended by the chief ministers of the Northeastern states.
“We have already met Shah three times, twice when he visited Shillong, to draw his attention to the ILP and the language issues,” KSU president Lambokstar Marngar said.
“It is very insulting as they do not listen to what we have to say although the Centre is duty-bound to listen to the voices of the people of Meghalaya,” he said.
He, however, said the KSU would take a call on meeting Shah and submitting representations on the pending issues once again. “But he has to take a call on the pending issues because the resolutions on the ILP and Khasi-Garo language reflect the aspirations of the 60 legislators as well as the people of Meghalaya,” he added.
“The ball now is in the court of the Indian government to show it cares about our people,” Marngar said.
He also said facilitating a meeting with Shah would depend on the wisdom of the state government.
A KSU team met Shah with a set of demands during his visit to Shillong in July 2021. Shah did not make any commitment to the demand for the implementation of ILP in Meghalaya and the inclusion of the Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule.
