The Voice of the People Party (VPP) has at last risen to the occasion. The Meghalaya High Court order was a wake-up call because until then no Member of the District Council had read the 222 page Assam and Meghalaya Autonomous Districts (Constitution of District Council) Rules, 1951. Now the VPP has decided to constitute a special committee to examine possible amendments to the above Rules, more specifically Rule 8 and 128(1).It took 75 years for the people running the State of Meghalaya and those who have occupied the sacred portals of the District Council to realise that the Assam and Meghalaya Autonomous Districts (Constitution of District Council) Rules, 1951 were inherently flawed in terms of allowing non-tribals to contest election to a body that seeks to protect tribal interests.
Rule 8 says, “a person shall not be qualified to be elected as a member of the District Council unless he (a) is a citizen of India (b) is not less than 25 years of age and (c) is entitled to vote at the election of members of the District Council of that autonomous district.” Under the Section – Franchise -Electoral Rolls, Rule 128(1) says “Save insofar as or otherwise provided in these rules every person who is- (a) a citizen of India and ordinary (this should have been ordinarily) resident in a constituency for not less than 180 days during the qualifying period. (b) not below the age of 18 years on the qualifying date (c) not of unsound mind and does not stand to be declared by a competent court or such authority as may be empowered by the Governor on this behalf. (d) for the time being not disqualified from voting under the provisions of any law relating to corrupt or illegal practices and other offences in connection with elections, shall be entitled to vote at any election of the District Council of an autonomous district.
Provided that a person not belonging to a Scheduled Tribe specified in part XI – Meghalaya of the Schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) order 1950, as amended up to date, shall not be entitled to vote unless he is a permanent resident within the territorial limits of the said autonomous district. The Rule also says that a person who can vote can also contest the elections and it is this clause which is causing all the violence right now in the Garo Hills. The question that arises – why was this not contested since 1951 when the Rules were made. In the Khasi Hills, leaders like BB Lyngdoh and others preferred to appeal to the non-tribals not to vote for the Council elections and much less to contest because they knew what the repercussions would be. Also, leaders like BB Lyngdoh, Capt WA Sangma, PR Kyndiah etc., were much aware that there were several non-tribal leaders who joined the statehood movement and were members of the All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) then. They might have felt at the time that amending Rule 128 (1) of Autonomous Districts (Constitution of District Council) Rules, 1951, to disallow non tribals to vote or contest elections to the ADCs would have alienated the genuine non-tribal residents of a District Council constituency, since their names are in the electoral rolls of the legislative assembly too. Now after 75 years this omission has come to haunt the tribals of Meghalaya.
