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A crisis in Meghalaya

Sushanta Talukdar

The D.D. Lapang Government is caught in the crossfire of a Khasi-Garo spat over the Board of School Education.

THE SEPTEMBER 30 police firing on two protest rallies at Tura and Williamnagar in the Garo hills of Meghalaya has snowballed into a major political crisis for the Congress-led coalition Government in the State. Nine persons, seven of them school and college-going students, were killed in the police action.

The rallies were taken out by the Garo Students' Union (GSU) in defiance of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC. They were to pressure the D.D. Lapang Government not to go ahead with the proposed restructuring of the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE). For more than four months the Garos and the Khasis have been at "war" over the MBOSE. The Khasi Students' Union (KSU) first launched an agitation demanding that a full time Chairman-cum-Chief Executive Officer be appointed for the MBOSE at Tura. It also demanded two Secretaries — one for Shillong and the other for Tura.

Chief Minister Lapang initially declined and only decided to strengthen the MBOSE by filling all vacancies. He conceded the KSU demand after the resignation of Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh of the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM), a coalition partner of the Congress-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance. Mr. Lapang's move to placate the KSU, however, backfired. It prompted the GSU to launch a vigorous movement as it felt the decision amounted to a bifurcation of the Board.

On June 24, the Cabinet entrusted an official committee headed by Chief Secretary P.J. Bazeley with the task of resolving the issue.

The Cabinet approved the committee's report and issued an ordinance recommending among other things the appointment of two directors — one for Tura and another for the Shillong office. The Shillong office has now been upgraded into a regional office.

The agitating groups of the Khasis and the Jaintias were satisfied by the Government decision but the Garo bodies revived their agitation. The State Government failed to sense the intensity of the movement and took the tough line that discussions would be held with the GSU only if it suspended the protests.

This later led to the September 30 police firing and the subsequent political crisis. The former Lok Sabha Speaker, P.A. Sangma, who recently resigned the Tura Lok Sabha seat and rejoined the Nationalist Congress Party, and the seven NCP legislators have thrown their weight behind the GSU and other agitating Garo bodies such as the Garo Hills Ctizens' Forum. On October 7, the Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Home and Education, Mukul Sangma, a Garo, quit the Ministry.

The seven NCP legislators have already responded to the GSU diktat to the 24 Garo legislators in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly to resign in protest against the September 30 police firing and the proposed restructuring of the MBOSE. The political developments over the MBOSE issue has put a question mark over Mr. Lapang's fate. Mr. Sangma has urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to replace him. This is the first time he has written to Ms. Gandhi since quitting the Congress. Mr. Sangma has even suggested two names — the former Home Minister, R.G. Lyngdoh, and J.D. Rimbai — to replace Mr. Lapang.

Mr. Sangma's other demands include making Tura the winter capital of Meghalaya and holding an Assembly session in the town, setting up of the proposed Indian Institute of Management at Tura instead of Shillong, and upgrading the North Eastern Hill University at Tura to a Central university.

The Congress camp is worried over Mr. Sangma's activities. He seems to have gained more clout after his return to the NCP, an ally of the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre. The former Lok Sabha Speaker who will be now seeking re-election from Tura on the NCP ticket has already cautioned the State Government against the proposed restructuring of the MBOSE.

The Lapang Government, already under pressure due to the sharp ethnic divide between the Khasis and the Garos triggred by the MBOSE impasse, is now faced with a new challenge. It has to survive as well as ensure that its fortress in the Garo hills is intact.

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