Staff Reporter
SHILLONG:
The Congress in Meghalaya has condemned the attack on Christians and the vandalisation of a church at Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.
“This only shows the extent of hate that is being spread in the country which has come to a stage where the Christian minorities are being physically attacked and churches vandalised,” Congress leader Ronnie V Lyngdoh said.
Lyngdoh said their leader Rahul Gandhi is ensuring that this hate does not spread.
He said that the minorities in the country are vulnerable and that they have no means of protection, and they are discriminated against.
The Congress has also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to act against the culprits.
Lyngdoh said that the attack on the religious minorities only shows that the Constitution of the country is being attacked wherein the right to religious freedom has been enshrined.
The Congress leader also informed that the party has sent an email to the chief minister of Chhattisgarh ruled by the same party to ensure protection of the minorities and those responsible for the attack be taken to task.
Lyngdoh also expressed concern that hate speeches in the country are not being condemned by the government and this only emboldens attacks on minorities.
He said that if these hate speeches are not being condemned by the government it only indicates that there are official sanctions to the attacks.
He said that all these acts are to discredit the Congress government in Chhattisgarh.
“But I am sure the government there has nothing to do with it,” Lyngdoh said.
On the issue of the letter purportedly sent by an Assam superintendent of police of the Special Branch for ordering an inquiry into the number of new churches established in that state, he said that this was denied by the Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“This shows something is wrong and if the officers can do whatever they like without the knowledge of the government it only shows that the chief minister of Assam is not acting responsibly. This is not possible at all that this escaped his knowledge. No officer would dare to go against the government on such kind of activities,” Lyngdoh said.
Lyngdoh said that this only indicates wherever the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules minorities are not safe.
The Congress asked the chief minister of Assam to act against the superintendent of police if the letter was sent without his knowledge and if no action is taken then it proves that the state government is behind all this.
Lyngdoh said that wherever the BJP government is the minorities are not safe and the people of Meghalaya will reject the saffron party in the 2023 election.
“You don’t need to be in power to polarise the people and if developmental activities are taken up people will vote for you,” he said.
He also said that the coalition partners in the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government like the National People’s Party, the United Democratic Party (UDP) are complicit in whatever is happening all over the country.
The Congress leader said that these parties will be responsible for all the acts that are being perpetrated on the minorities.
“They cannot escape for five years. They have been working together by being part of the MDA government,” Lyngdoh said.
He said that the voters all over the country have started to reject the BJP for its politics of division, polarisation on religious grounds.
He said that the Akali Dal in Punjab, the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti have deserted the BJP.
“But it is sad that in Meghalaya the same parties who will go to the people and profess their love for the indigenous people are still in the MDA where BJP is one of the coalition partners,” Lyngdoh said.
The Congress said that the people of the state will reject the MDA partners in the 2023 assembly election.
“This is the talk of the town. They don’t want to see that the MDA government will come back to power. This is the worst government in 50 years of statehood,” another Congress leader JA Lyngdoh said.
According to him, after the people have seen the performance of the MDA coalition partners like NPP, UDP, BJP they will turn back to the Congress as an alternative.
The Congress also said that while all the 60 MLA in 2019 unanimously brought an official resolution to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the NPP Member of Parliament from Tura Agatha Sangma voted for it.
“The sister of Conrad Sangma voted in favour of the Bill,” the Congress said.