The Voice of Peoples’ Party (VPP) has rightly questioned the silence of the MDA Government on the recent threat to their President Ardent Basaiawmoit on the imbroglio arising out of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council’s appointment of a myntri of the Hima Sohra, Mynjurlang Majaw as the Acting Syiem following the demise of Late Freeman Syiem. This appointment violates tradition as no one outside of the Syiem clan can hold the post of the Syiem (chieftain, not king). Normally the Syiem is appointed after an electoral body comprising adult male members from select clans elect the next Syiem who usually is from a certain natal clan (kpoh) and Marremdor Syiem was also Deputy Syiem and accepted as such by the people of Sohra. It is therefore not understood as to why the KHADC decided to violate this provision. Since every Hima is founded by a ‘Kur’ (clan) there is also a lack of uniformity on who is entitled to become the Syiem of a Hima. Also there have been a lot of contestations in such appointments in the past and also the propensity of the KHADC to disenfranchise some Syiems and to appoint the people of their choice.
The KHADC should have just followed the United Khasi and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council (Appointment and Succession of Chiefs and Headmen) Act 1959 to avoid unnecessary conflict. No explanation has also been given by the Council as to why it decided to veer away from tradition, which perhaps might be an internal problems related to toll collections since Hima Sohra oversees several land customs stations around the Shella-Bholaganj area that trade in limestone, boulders and sand by the thousands of trucks on a daily basis. Earlier, coal too passed through this area. It can be gauged therefore that the revenue collection both formal and informal must be a lucrative one for the Hima. It is also not ruled out that there are many informal actors who levy their own kind of taxes (extortion) of which perhaps the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) is one. Apart from claiming to abide by tradition insofar as the appointment of a new syiem is concerned, the HNLC perhaps has other interests, known only to those involved in the limestone trade, in particular. But the HNLC threatening Ardent Basaiawmoit the individual, also the VPP President and an elected member of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly warranted a public condemnation of the threat and an assurance of safety for Basaiawmoit.
In a state where law and order prevails, any threat, veiled or open against any citizen cannot be allowed. The HNLC is an outlawed militant outfit, currently in talks with the Government. How is it that the outfit is repeatedly violating the terms of the talks and issuing death threats apart from causing IED blasts wherever they choose to. Some of their cadres have been arrested in Jaintia Hills for causing the IED blast at a workstation of a construction company. Clearly the MDA Government seems to be handling the HNLC with kid gloves for reasons best known to it. It is similarly handling other pressure groups too with the same tentativeness. But this is not new to Meghalaya. All governments have been hamstrung by pressure groups and militant outfits and succumbed to populism. This has to end.
