SHILLONG:
“Give us ILP, we will support BJP” – read a placard displayed by activists of the Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Khyndai Lad on Friday.
Modi for the first time took out a roadshow in Meghalaya and addressed a massive crowd here to seek people’s support for the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections to be held on February 27.
The activists also displayed placards expressing the need to include Khasi and Garo languages in the 8th Schedule to the Constitution of India.
HYC President Robertjune Kharjahrin said, through the placards, that the HYC is only reminding the Centre and the Prime Minister on the need to take a call on these important and genuine issues by respecting the resolutions passed by the State Assembly.
“It is up to the BJP to take a call,” said Kharjahrin. He expressed disappointment at the mixed communication at the state and national level, which he believes is evidence that the party does not take the issues of locals seriously.
Thus far, HYC’s many memoranda to national leaders of BJP to implement these demands have been ignored, he added.
“If BJP can give ILP to Manipur without any hesitation, then why is there hesitation for Meghalaya? What is needed is the political will on the part of the BJP. There is nothing else to talk, to discuss. What is needed is whether the BJP has the political will to protect the identity of the indigenous people of the state of Meghalaya, that’s all,” Kharjahrin asserted.
He further defended the ILP, stating that the HYC had outlined plans for an “e-ILP,” as per which the restrictions on movement of Indian citizens from other states into Meghalaya would not affect the tourism industry in the state.
“Applying for plane tickets or bus tickets will not affect anybody to go to some places they want to go. So similarly, applying for ILP will not affect people. No doubt, every state wants to boom tourism – that issue has been discussed and they need not be reminded about it all the time,” Kharjahrin.