SHILLONG:
President of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), Lambokstar Marngar, has reiterated the union’s opposition to railways, uranium mining and remained firm in its demand for Inner Line Permit (ILP) and to include Khasi language in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution.
Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) released their documentary “1978 KSU shirta” (1978 KSU forever) on Monday which chronicles the 40-year journey of the union. The documentary was released by founder general secretary (in 1978) Geoffrey Basan and president of KSU (1979) Michael Syiem at the U Soso Tham auditorium.
Marngar said, “My message to the community members and especially the government is take my heart and the hearts of the members before mining uranium. The government should come up with a comprehensive mechanism that we have been demanding, before it thinks of bringing railways in the state. If the government pays no attention, we will be prompted to repeat the 2017 episode and it will be even worse than that.”
He added, “The union will continue with its efforts to correct the government and will oppose if the government does anything wrong and will knock on the secretariat’s door.”
Marngar lamented the disunity amongst the community members and called upon the people to comfort one another in view of the various tragic incidents the community faced.
He also thanked the doctors and nurses who helped the injured KSU members.
The KSU president observed that the community needs youth that are strong and firm in their principles, who have a vision and love for their community.
He added that the union lost many of its former leaders during days of violence.
Speaking on the occasion, former president of KSU Michael Syiem suggested the union should improvise its strategies for the benefit of the community as a whole.
“As a minority community, we need cooperation between the males and females,” he said.
The documentary
The documentary took the audience to the time the union was founded in 1978, which was mostly on student issues but the then leaders felt an additional calling, which was to protect the interest of the minority indigenous community following influx.
The reels then moved back and forth to issues of the violent stand-off between the KSU members and the police way back in the 1980s, ‘90s, 2000 and till date and also depicted the union’s stance on issues such as uranium mining, Inner Line Permit (ILP), railways, the riot at Harijan Colony, the anti-CAA issue.
The documentary also showed KSU members who were either killed by the police or by miscreants of a different community.
One of the victim’s family based in Nongmensong gave their account of the time he was killed by miscreants.
Following the deaths of its members, the KSU started the Ksan eh-rngiew movement in the year 2000.