SHILLONG, JAN 22: The proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) on Thursday called for a 24-hour bandh in the Khasi and Jaintia hills region boycotting the Republic Day celebration in the state.
The shutdown will start from 6 pm of January 25 to 6 pm of January 26, HNLC publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw said in a statement issued on Thursday. He,however, informed that people attending churches and other religious activities, hospital emergency and media houses are exempted during the hours of the bandh.
“We strongly protest the Republic Day as the celebration within our jurisdiction is ‘illegal’,” Nongtraw said adding “We don’t want anything from the Government of India in respect to its states or its land but we are demanding our ‘right to self existence’ which the centre has to return back to our nation.”
Emphasizing on the importance of the history of the Khasi nation, which the present generation tends to forget, Nongtraw said, “If we don’t know about our own history, the people of the state including leaders will continue to remain as the step-children of the Government of India and they will continue to shout about the Sixth Schedule and Eight Schedule.”
According to Nongtraw, these are nothing but to degrade, dilute and weakened the traditional heads, the Syiems, the chief executive members (CEMs) of the autonomous district councils (ADCs) and the indigenous land.
“The Republic Day celebration is just an eye wash,” Nongtraw said while alleging that the Khasi states were forced to signed the Instrument of Accession (IOA) at gun point to overpower the Standstill Agreement 1947.
Stating with the present BJP led government at the centre; there has been an increasing sense of insecurity among minority communities including Muslim and Christian, Nongtraw said adding only recently an MP from Meghalaya Wansuk Syiem and others have protested against the move of the BJP government to observe the Good Governance Day on December 25, which is an important day for the Christian community in India.
On the Inner Line Permit (ILP), Nongtraw said when the leaders, especially those who are supporting the Hindu, witnessed that the indigenous people are united through the agitations sponsored by the 13 pro ILP groups,they started to use tactic of ‘intellectual trap’ by saying that the ILP is a law which bring communalism adding such a tactic was adopted by them because they understand the impact when the people are fighting under one umbrella.- By Our Reporter
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