Shillong, May 28: United Democratic Party candidate and senior lawyer V.G.K. Kynta on Wednesday projected himself as a regional voice capable of taking Meghalaya’s concerns beyond State boundaries, asserting that effective representation in Parliament would require communication across linguistic and political lines, including the ability to speak Hindi to build wider national support for indigenous issues.
Positioning the United Democratic Party as the political inheritor of the State’s historic regional movements, Kynta underlined the party’s indigenous credentials and stressed the need for a representative capable of articulating Meghalaya’s concerns at the national level while building alliances across party lines in Parliament.
“I feel the best platform is the indigenous platform, the UDP United Democratic Party is a very old party, infact it is the offshoot of many regional parties All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC), Hill People’s Union (HPU), and this is you can say is the holding company of all these Regional Political parties,” Kynta said.
Without directly attacking rival candidates, Kynta said voters would ultimately decide the kind of representation they wanted in Parliament.
“I don’t have any comments on the candidates of other political parties but people will have a choice, the Khasi Jaintia people will have a choice to choose the candidate wheather you want a lawyer who is already connected to the masses, or want a teacher. Public are yet to see if I am a good performer or not,” he said.
The senior advocate maintained that merely electing a representative from an indigenous regional party would not automatically ensure Meghalaya’s issues receive national attention unless the elected member is able to cultivate influence and confidence among parliamentarians cutting across political divides.
“Being a member of parliament from United Democratic Party, if I am going to going to go to parliament and raised a voice of being an indigenous party from Meghalaya, I will be lost in the ocean because when you go to the parliament, communication is the biggest assets and I have to able to win the confidence of other members of the parliament,” he stated.
Kynta further argued that issues concerning Meghalaya and the Khasi-Jaintia community could not be addressed in isolation and would require collective political engagement.
“If I have an involving the state, involving the Jaitbynriew , I cannot do alone, I have to sing along with all others, I have to try and speak Hindi also perhaps to be able to convince others to take up my issues of our state. My plus point is that I will be able to communicate to all others. I am not do Communal that I will be alone in future. For the interest of the people of Khasi Jaintia, I will definitely work along with others members of parliament,” he said.
Highlighting key regional concerns, Kynta said issues such as the inter-state border dispute, inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and protection of autonomous institutions would require broader parliamentary backing.
“Now we have got border issue, we have issue of inclusion of the Khasi language, Garo languages in the 8th schedule. That may not be sufficient if I have to raise the voice alone. I have to take along every one. Strengthening the district council, there should not be step brotherly treatment by the state Government. We must have autonomy and that autonomy should not be wiped out because of the few vested interest,” he added.
