Former Chief Minister and senior TMC legislator from Songsak constituency, Dr. Mukul M Sangma on Monday said the protest against the Governor for addressing the House in Hindi is not a new thing.
Speaking to reporters, the former Chief Minister said it depends on the conscience of the leaders of the political parties as to how they respond to a given situation.
“….how political parties respond to a given situation that is very important , so I say that different people has different way of doing things , different political parties have different way of approach in a issue such as this, so therefore, it is upto the conscience of the leaders of those respective political parties,” Dr Sangma said.
“It is upto the conscience of the leaders of those respective political parties. I think it is important to take cognizance of what has been articulated in the past and even today. We did not want to repeat since the message is still there and optics are still available,” he added.
While reacting to the decision of the four VPP MLAs to stage a walk out, Dr Sangma, who is the senior most legislator in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly said, “The purpose is to invoke a sense of realisation pertaining to the huge diversity that the nation has. Only the fact that we did not feel the necessity for repetition since records are available and we only have to replay the optics.”
He further stated that they had already expressed their views in the preceding house.
“We have expressed our concern in the preceding house in the 10th house. We are in the 11th house now, so they are on record, we don’t want to repeat because then again there are multiple ways of interpretation, therefore, if you revisit the last house then all those records are available,” the TMC leader said.
He further asserted that the sentiments conveyed by the VPP MLAs are self explanatory.
Meanwhile, the TMC leader further said the party is firm on its commitment to pursue the demand for inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the 8th schedule of the constitution.
“The issue of demanding the recognition of these two languages (Khasi and Garo) is already on, it is one of the issue that we have promised to the people of the state, so this promise remains and we stand firm in our commitment to peruse this matter until it comes to a conclusion,” he added.
Issue of Leader of Opposition in Meghalaya Legislative Assembly
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya TMC parliamentary party leader Dr. Mukul Sangma said that the decision to elect a new LO will be arrived at after the meeting of all political parties in the opposition bench.
Talking to reporters in Shillong, he said, “We have not sat properly, we will do that and we will find out exactly what is necessary for us to decide upon as the different political parties who are sitting in the opposition side. So this exercise is pending and hopefully we will have. “
Stating that it is not the issue of becoming the Leader of the Opposition (LO) is no longer a matter of concern, he said, “It’s not the issue as who is the LO but the issue is to enable ourselves to fulfilling our responsibilities in the house as a political representative is of greater significance.”
Asked, he said, “We have not been able to sit yet on this particular issue and therefore there is a kind of lack of synergy in as far as this decision is concerned, so we will hope for a sitting and certain kind of decision which will be arrived at. the wisdom of all concern.”