On August 19, Shillong bled. A rally that was meant to be a statement became a scene of smashed cars, torched vehicles and 16 injured people. The Khasi Students’ Union’s black flag bike ride, meant to press a 5-point charter, ended with masked men turning anger into violence. That should have been the end of it. Let the law take its course. Let police hunt down those who broke the law and let the courts decide. That is how a democracy works.
Instead, for two days now, we have watched something uglier unfold. Assam drivers are stopping Meghalaya vehicles at Jorabat. Meghalaya groups are stopping Assam vehicles at Byrnihat. The Guwahati-Shillong corridor, the artery that feeds both states with fuel, food, medicine and livelihoods, has been held hostage.
This is not protest. This is collective punishment.
The Assam transport unions say they want safety guarantees. They are angry, and they have a right to be. No driver should fear for his life on a highway. But blocking roads is not how you rebuild trust. It is how you destroy it.
Every truck that doesn’t move means a shop in Shillong that runs out of stock. It means a patient waits longer for treatment. It means a student from Meghalaya in Guwahati who can’t get home. It means an Assamese driver who loses a day’s wage. Nobody wins when the road closes. And yet authorities on both sides are doing little more than watching. Police deployment is not a solution. An advisory to “take alternate routes” is not governance. The Supreme Court has said it plainly: public roads are for free movement. No group, no union, no association can claim the right to shut them indefinitely.
We have heard the arguments. “Teach them a lesson.” “Show them the economic cost.” But an eye for an eye does not bring justice. It only makes everyone blind. The violence of August 19 scarred people. The blockades of August 20 and 21 are scarring an entire region.
This is Meghalaya and Assam. We share borders, markets, families, classrooms. Our ambulances cross state lines. Our children study across state lines. Our businesses depend on each other. When we block each other, we don’t hurt governments. We hurt each other.
The right to commute is not negotiable. The governments must give concrete security assurances for commercial vehicles and for citizens of both states traveling through either state and act on the violence. An issue taken up by every union, student body and pressure group may be just; but method cannot be violence. And response to violence cannot be more disruption, that only hands the government the excuse to talk about law and order instead of actual demands.
Peace is not weakness. Peace is what lets a truck driver from both states feed their family. The people have had enough of burning cars and burning bridges.
Open the roads. Enforce the law. Talk. If people of both states keep answering violence with blockades, and blockades with more anger, the only thing the region will achieve is poorer, angrier, and less safe for everyone.
As the messy blockade continues, the final responsibility to bring harmony lies solely with the political leaders of Assam and Meghalaya. They need to buck up and do their job.
