SHILLONG:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sanbor Shullai’s “unruly” interruption of Speaker and United Democratic Party chief’s speech during the visit of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu on July 6, hasn’t gone down well with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.
A day after United Democratic Party (UDP) urged the Chief Minister and the BJP to take action against the cabinet minister, calling his interruption of Metbah Lyngdoh’s speech “unparliamentary and uncivil”, the chief minister assured that action would be taken against the Arts and Culture minister.
“I had met the assembly speaker and he communicated to me about the party’s demand. I have told UDP that I have taken note of the incident and gave them assurance that I will definitely look into the matter,” said Conrad.
Stating that he was also present when the incident happened, the Chief Minister said that the Speaker was raising some pertinent issues concerning many sections of society in front of the presidential nominee and it was inappropriate on Shullai’s part to interrupt the Speaker.
“It was appropriate of the Speaker to raise these issues in front of a presidential candidate because, in the near future, she would be in a position to be able to keep those issues in mind and take appropriate action. But while those concerns were being raised, there was a reaction from one of the MLAs, Sanbor Shullai of the BJP and it was not appropriate,” he said, adding that it was not correct on Shullai’s part to do such a thing, especially in front of the presidential candidate.
The chief minister, however, refrained from divulging much details about the magnitude of action to be taken against the BJP legislator. “We will convene a Meghalaya Democratic Alliance MDA meeting to finalise on the voting (presidential election), which would take place on July 18 but apart from that, as far as this particular issue is concerned, I will take appropriate decision at the right time.”
The Chief Minister, however, clarified that this is a one-off incident and doesn’t imply that there is any kind of rift with thin the MDA. “There have been many instances when we have raised concerns, argued, debated and even didn’t agree on certain decisions together; that’s the way how a coalition function. And since we are in different parties, it is a natural process for a coalition to discuss, to debate and to argue on many things but we have always come to a conclusion that whatever the debate takes place, we will always be together and that’s how it has been,” said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister, however, admitted that there have been instances when legislators or cabinet ministers had differences with his decision but since they are discussions done in private, he doesn’t dim it fit to be discussed in detail in public.
Whatever is discussed in private with me or with any individuals be it MLAs or a party leader or any citizen of the state, that is between the individual and me. I don’t think it is appropriate for me to share that unless it was done in public like it was on that day. Hence, it was inappropriate and that too in front of the presidential candidate,” said Conrad.