Shillong, Oct 6: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has found a handy stick with which to beat Tura MP Saleng Sangma with, namely as the latter has appealed to foreign countries to lean on India’s central government on the amendment to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
Saleng, of the Congress Party, is against the FCRA amendment, having called it draconian. There is a general level of unease surrounding the proposed amendment among minority-run organisations, such as educational institutions, hospitals and churches.
Such was the level of opposition to it that the central government referred it to a joint parliamentary committee. However, Saleng reportedly felt that the government would not heed the opposition but it does take the words of foreign powers seriously.
Speaking today, the CM said that asking external powers to intervene in India’s legislative matters is an affront to the sovereignty of India.
“It is absolutely inappropriate and here the case is about FCRA itself,” he said. Conrad’s government has also expressed reservations about the amendment.
The Chief Minister reiterated that any kind of foreign intervention in the country’s domestic laws and the acts passed in India by Parliament or state legislatures for the people of the country is inappropriate.
“We make our laws and nobody should and can influence us from outside,” Conrad said. “A mistake was made (by Saleng) and hopefully that will not be done in the future.”
According to him, as elected members one must realise that there is a need to work together without trying to extract political mileage. What should be done, according to the CM, is to understand the concerns, look at the issues, look at the aspects of what the central government is trying to achieve and look at how this will affect Christian institutions.
“We should see how the concerns of the government of India are addressed and also at the same time the concerns of our institutes are not compromised and our people are not put into any kind of compromising situation. That is the real mission we have in front of us,” Sangma added.
The Chief Minister urged all leaders of the state to put aside all political affiliations and to work together as a community and find real solutions.
“It is only through discussion, dialogue and representation that we will be able to come to a conclusion. I hope that all political leaders, elected representatives will put their political interest behind, come together as a community and see what we can do to help our people,” Sangma said.
