Khasi Student Union general secretary Donald V Thabah on September 8 said that the Khasi indigenous community will continue to suffer the same, face deprivation, and be marginalised even if the country’s name is changed from India to Bharat.
Lamenting on the Centre’s continues neglect towards the safeguarding of the identity of the indigenous community, Donald Thabah said that the government has done less or nothing to protect the indigenous communities of Meghalaya.
“The indigenous communities of Meghalaya are not protected by any strong legislation like the ILP or Article 371 like other states of the region”, said the Khasi Student Union leader.
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“The current government is trying to bring in lot of changes in this nation. Whether they are positive or negative, it has a huge impact. Sometime it has a detrimental impact especially for the people of the northeast region as they are remotely located in the country. Sometimes these changes do not conform to the ways of living. Like you see the Uniform Civil Code, and many other things in the academics such as the NEET and all these things, they are very new to us. It brings the whole nation into a state of confusion. We have seen the attempt to change the CrPC, IPC. So what we are seeing is whatever started in 1947, is going to change. But for us, if we look, from the Khasi perspective, you can see we are still suffering, under oppression, under marginalisation, deprivation from the country. If you see the name of Meghalaya, that is also not from the perspective of the native language, it is basically language. An changing the name from India to Bharat will have an effect on the people of the state, but at the same time there are many more pressing issues apart from the changing of the country’s name. Even if the name is changed from India to Bharat, we will be suffering the same way”, said Donald Thabah while speaking to the media on the issue of the country’s name change proposal from India to Bharat by the Central Government.
He also observed that the Centre continues to ignore the demands of the people of Meghalaya such as implementing the ILP or the inclusion of the Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.