What Assam’s ‘Jatiya Nayak’ can learn from Meghalaya CM

Guwahati, January 9, 2019:

Assam and Meghalaya have been facing the problem of illegal immigrants for a long time now and that’s nothing new. But rather than solving the issue, the present BJP led government decided to introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and is slowly turning these states into a dumping ground of ‘legalized’ immigrants.

However, three Northeastern states (Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland) were on their toes from the very moment when the concept of the Bill was proposed and strongly opposed it. On the other hand, Assam’s BJP led government and its leaders along with CM Sarbananda Sonowal took a surprising turnaround that has left the people of this state in misery and agony with deep feeling of being betrayed by their own.

Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma has once again come upfront and strongly said ‘NO’ to implementing the Bill. This comes at a time when whole of Assam is in dire-straits, as the Citizenship Bill threatens to endanger the culture, heritage, originality, opportunities and the very existence of Assamese society. A strong stand from someone like Sangma, who is also running a coalition government in Meghalaya with BJP, does send a strong message to our ‘Jatiya Nayak’ – CM Sarbananda Sonowal.

Here is the interview the Meghalaya CM provided to InsideNE:

https://www.facebook.com/ne.inside/videos/955209378008224/

If states like Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram can strongly and directly oppose the adamant BJP government, why have local leaders like Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma blindly accepted the Bill and has threatened the very existence of their own?

It’s worth reminding that the BJP government’s one of the main agenda, that helped them to be voted as the single largest party in the state, was Illegal immigrants with the trust to protect ‘Jati, Mati and Bheti’. But soon that healing touch (to win elections) has turned into a wound that Assam will never forget.

It seems the BJP government is trying to balance the existing population in Assam with illegal immigrants by legalizing entry to more immigrants (minorities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan) before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to strengthen their vote bank with specialized sympathy towards the ‘Hindu’ minority population.

The question that still remains among cores of Assamese people is that: Has power got to our ‘Jatiya Nayak’ and specially Himanta Biswa Sarma – who also plans to crush all protestors with his media machines – and compelled them to forget their roots and promises?

Its time they take some inspiration from CM Sangma and come out in the open with full support, at least for the people who have voted them to power.