Shillong, Oct 11: The Congress on Saturday condemned Home Minister, Prestone Tynsong’s recent statement advising parents to be responsible for their children’s safety instead of blaming the government for kids being victims of violence at the hands of strangers.
Tynsong’s comments came, after a seven-year-old boy, Kyrshanbor Kharmudai, was found dead in Mawpat in October 9, 2025 after going missing from his Nongrah home.
His dead body was found in Mawpat on the morning of October 10.
“We urged the (Home) Minister to relook at his statement and have a little sensitivity and understand the root cause of these problems,” Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) secretary Manual Badwar said.
Badwar demanded that the government should come with as holistic policy even as he urged all stakeholders from government departments and traditional institutions and the Church to bring change.
“We can’t afford to live in a society like this anymore. We take pride in the fact that we as a society which took care of everyone, but where are we losing it now,” the MPCC members said.
Badwar said that even as the society is losing its relevance economically and in today’s world, he believes that culturally too is going down.
“We condemn what the Home Minister has said and have a relook at his statement,” the MPCC member said.
He said that citizens are angry at the whole situation in the state, over the various cases of violence against children,.
“The frustration among the public at large is becoming worst and don’t wait for it to boil,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mahila Congress Pradesh Committee president Joplin Shylla said that the party has asked the government to ban pornography sites and the online games played by kids are violent in nature.
“Some (games) lead to a mindset to kill somebody and commit suicide,” Shylla said.
She urged the government to streamline which games and sites the children can have access to.
The Mahila Congress president also pointed out that sex education is an important subject which has to be taught to students in the schools.
Reacting to Tynsong’s statement, Shylla said that politicians have ample security for their children but the public at large do not have it.
“Our children go on foot, but for them they go on cars to drop their children,” she said.
On the claims of the government about smart city, and supposed installations of CCTVs, she said that culprits would have been nabbed.
Meanwhile, on Saturday the MPCC held a torch (Dongmusa) rally at the Congress Bhawan to protest, crime against children.
“Dongmusa was used as a symbol of fighting back. It is relevant for our social structure and culture,” Badwar said.
He said that the symbol of the “Dongmusa” was used as a sign of the deteriorating society even as he said that the government has the responsibility to reform.
Stating that the government has the department of Health and Family Welfare, but there are no policies.
