SHILLONG: Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly Mukul Sangma on Friday termed the violence in Shillong and its aftermath a “complete failure” of the Meghalaya Government, accusing it of ignoring warnings from civil society organisations, failing to anticipate the consequences of the proposed rally and not taking adequate preventive measures.
He said the incident must not be portrayed as a conflict between the people of Meghalaya and Assam, warning that such a narrative could damage the State’s reputation and disturb the peaceful environment along the inter-State border.
On the law-and-order situation, Sangma said the government had failed to take cognisance of mounting public frustration over issues repeatedly raised by civil society organisations.
“In my own way, if you look at the incident and the genesis, how the culmination till the day when the incident took place, we have been confronted by challenges, in the past, when issues are being raised in the best interest of the people in the state by various stakeholders and particularly civil society organizations representing the people,” he said.
“It is important for government to take cognizance of every issue, now therefore, whether the government was not in a position to understand the magnitude of the kind of frustration and anger that will ultimately be the end result of governments insensitivity to those issues when they were being flag before the government, that is one part,” Sangma said.
Questioning the government’s preparedness on the day of the incident, he said authorities should have anticipated the possibility of violence after permitting the rally and should have issued appropriate public advisories.
“The day of the incident, is it not possible for the government to know what is going to happen, it is a complete failure of the government, now if a permission has been issued for organizing a rally, was it not necessary to give advisory to the public as well,” he said.
Sangma said the government had sufficient machinery to gather intelligence and assess potential threats, but failed to deploy adequate preventive measures.
“Based on whatever inputs the government has, government has all the necessary government machineries to have all kinds of inputs, and therefore accordingly, put in place all measures, which is capable of ensuring that, things what has happened would not have happened,” he said.
“So, it is a failure of the government, yes, I am sorry to say that,” he added.
However, Sangma cautioned against giving the incident a communal or inter-State dimension, saying it should not be interpreted as a confrontation between the people of Meghalaya and Assam.
“It is not a conflict between the people of Meghalaya and Assam, it is an unpleasant incident that has happened because a failure of the state government of Meghalaya,” he said.
He also warned of the potential impact of social media narratives, saying governments must act swiftly when incidents have the potential to generate misleading or dangerous interpretations.
“You have to very careful because we are in an era where the media spreads like anything, not the conventional media, the social media, it is an era of social media,” Sangma said.
“Therefore, utmost precaution has to be taken by any government of the day to ensure that, any incident which has got the potentiality of creating a different kind of interpretation is taken cognizance of and dealt effectively,” he added.
Sangma questioned whether the government had demonstrated such urgency in its response.
“Have you seen that coming from the government, till now, I have not seen, I am sorry, the only thing I have seen is that okay law will take its own course, they don’t have to tell about how the law will take its own course, it is a natural course?” he said.
“It is the easiest thing to say for any government law will take its own course, but who prevented the government from taking cognizance of the seriousness of these issues that was flag by civil society organizations to draw the attention of the government,” he said.
“The government was found as insensitive, irresponsible, and wanting,” Sangma said.
On vehicles remaining stranded along the inter-State border, Sangma expressed concern over the government’s handling of the situation and the wider consequences for Meghalaya.
“Let me be frank and honest, they don’t know what they are doing, I can only share this with great concern, but it is not something which augur well for the state because you look at the overall negative ramification of what is happening with a kind of perception that is being generated and amplified by the kind of narrative and conversation, that is very dangerous,” he said.
He warned that the continuing situation could adversely affect Meghalaya’s image and its relations with neighbouring States.
“It has got that kind of potentiality to create unnecessary damage to the name and fame and brand of the state of Meghalaya, the reputation of the state and the ramification on the peaceful environment in the region across the inter-state border, this is what you are seeing,” Sangma said.
He urged the government to respond with greater responsibility and competence.
“Therefore, it is very necessary important for the government also to take cognizations of the overall Situation that’s unfolding, and which is not actually really something, which is comfortable to watch and I expect the government respond to the situation with utmost sense of responsibility, with utmost demonstration of their competence and at most sense priority of addressing issues,” he said.
On the question of intelligence failure, Sangma said the government’s institutional machinery should have provided adequate inputs to anticipate the possible fallout of the rally.
“That is exactly what I am referring to, you have to read between the lines, government has all the necessary government machineries to have all the necessary inputs under any given situation and all these government machineries must be activated accordingly,” he said.
“And because you have activated government machineries, therefore, I have every reason to believe that you will have all the kinds of necessary inputs, to know what is the likelihood of a situation, the fall out, if any,” he added.
Sangma said intelligence inputs alone were not sufficient and that the government also needed to anticipate how a protest could escalate, particularly when public frustration had already intensified.
“That is one part, but another part is the power of anticipation as to what can happen, it is necessary for any government of the day to understand the likelihood of any this kind of situation when such a rally is being organized and is rally to protest against insensitivity of the government where the frustration has become anger, the anger has resulted in rebellion,” he said.
Recalling his warnings in the Assembly, Sangma said the government had been cautioned against complacency.
“Have I not said it number of times in the august house, there is no space for government to be complacent, don’t take things for granted, this exact words I have used in the house in the last season, after that what happened in Garo Hills, you have seen it, now you are seeing it in Shillong and the ultimate fallout?” he said.
Sangma attributed the situation to what he described as misplaced priorities within the government.
“You see what I can see, and based on my analysis is that, the people in government have mis priorities, that is very dangerous in democracy because everyone who has the responsibility of governance must understand the priority, they are busy in other priorities, that is why this unfortunate incident damaging the peaceful environment of the state,” he said.
At the same time, Sangma appealed to all concerned not to allow the August 19 incident to acquire a communal character, reiterating that the violence should instead be viewed in the context of the government’s failure to take adequate pre-emptive measures.
“At the same time, I would like to appeal to all concern that this very, whatever incident has taken place on the 19th must not be given the kind of perception which should revolve around as an incident because of the conflict different communities, it should not be it is something which has happened because of, as I have said because of the adequate pre-emptive measures that was not taken very well by the government,” he said.
