SHILLONG, FEB 7: Congress leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh on Tuesday expressed confidence that the party will bounce back to power at the Centre as well as in the state.
“The Congress is going to bounce back to power. Recently we had two assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, which were ruled by the BJP. Congress managed to arrest the seat from the BJP in Himachal Pradesh and we are going to arrest more states from the BJP believe me,” Ronnie told reporters.
Rubbishing the allegations made by other political parties that Congress is a ‘sinking ship’, he said such a statement is without any basis and justification.
“BJP rules only in 12 states but we have our presence in all the states of the country. How can you say it is a sinking ship? Yes, maybe now we do not have elected candidates but the party exists in all parts of the country. You can see the Bharat Yatra of our leader Rahul Gandhi, you see thousands of people are following him on foot, walking and accompanying him. How can you say that it is a sinking ship?” he asked.
He went on to add saying, “Talking about these parties that give allegations where else do they have their presence except here in Meghalaya, some don’t even have their presence in the entire state as they have only in a few districts. Come on, I mean when you say something, say something which can be justified.”
Ronnie also assured that the Congress will provide good governance, corruption free government, provide employment for the youth, uninterrupted power supply to the state and empower women if voted back to power in the state.
According to him, women need to be empowered especially in our matrilineal society. If women are empowered, we empower the whole state and the whole country.
The Congress leader further maintained that the party is crystal clear on its stand with regards to the demand for implementation of the inner line permit (ILP) in Meghalaya.
Ronnie told reporters that the Congress had supported the official resolution on ILP passed by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.
“How can you say that the Congress is not clear? We are very clear on the floor of the House, unanimously we have supported the demand for ILP. If that is going to ensure the protection of our state of the indigenous people we give full support. Come on, that is not a fact that we are not very clear. We are very clear, loud and clear that we support the ILP in the interest of the people of the state not to be overwhelmed by the majority,” he said.
When asked, the former Mylliem legislator said, “If we come to power at the Centre because this is a central subject as the state does not have the power or the mandate to enact but if people vote us back in the state certainly we will ensure ILP is implemented.”
He also assured that the Congress will respect the sentiments of the people while resolving the long pending border dispute with Assam.
“Every stakeholder should be taken on board – the himas, the landowners. Now if everyone is happy then we will go ahead with it and if one single person or single section of society is not happy we are going to respect their sentiment. We are not just going to surrender,” he said.
He also slammed the MDA and its partners for surrendering the land of the state to Assam and said, “50 years back we got our statehood so that we are not under the domination of Assam. Now the very same party, look at their hypocrisy, they honoured the people who are fighting for statehood but what are they doing now 50 years later they surrender before Assam under the NEDA. It only shows the hypocrisy of fooling people.”
“But we are going to respect the sentiments of the people. We are going to ensure our land is precious and nothing is more precious to the people of the state than our land and we are going to ensure we do not lose one inch of our land to anyone,” he said.
Further, Ronnie slammed the MDA government for indulging in too many scams and said there is hardly any governance under its regime.
“You see corruption everywhere be it in the coal scam, be it in the Saubhagya scam, be it in the rice scam, be it in the Covid scam – you talk of any scam, the MDA is involved. It has its hands in all the scams,” he said.
He continued: “They may deny and it only strengthens the allegation now they have also withdrawn their consent to the CBI to conduct an inquiry. What more do you have to say?
When somebody gives allegations then there should be an independent inquiry to ascertain whether the allegations are true or false. Why are they scared? If you have nothing to hide, why are you scared of the CBI inquiry?”
He further questioned the intention of the MDA government by appointing a retired civil servant as chairperson of the Lokayukta.
“We had instituted the Lokayukta to particularly look into (corruption) cases but what have they done? You know the criteria to chair the Lokayukta should be a retired judge but whom have they appointed a civil servant. It only shows their intention is to ensure that the truth doesn’t come out,” the Congress leader concluded.
By Our Reporter
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