A groundswell of support from all sections of society has led RG Lyngdoh to make his return to politics and the Congress Part, the ex-Home Minister has said.
Yesterday, Highland Post reported on Lyngdoh’s potential return. In a longer interaction with the press today, he said, “There has been a lot of pressure (to make a comeback to politics) seeing the prevailing situation in the state on all fronts.”
His return to the Congress fold comes soon after Shillong MP Vincent Pala was inducted as the new Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president and Lyngdoh said that this definitely played a role.
“I cannot deny that. After all, he stretched out his hand. So maybe that was the final push (to rejoin),” he stated. “The big difference now that I see is that the current president of the MPCC is a team player. He (Pala) likes to consult and bring others into the loop, which I think is a very good trend.”
Since first leaving the party, Lyngdoh had held discussions with regional outfits, but he found these to be living too much in the past rather than being concerned with the future.
“I doubt their capability to deliver and I am comfortable with the Congress, I know the Congress well. I have been here before, hence I chose the Congress again,” Lyngdoh added.
On other possible parties, the ex-minister said that the ruling National People’s Party (NPP) was not an option for him as he feels it is taking Meghalaya down the wrong path. The Hindu nationalist BJP, for its part, has a “suspect ideology”.
“I don’t believe in a uniform country. After all, our country is unity in diversity. I think that diversity is what makes our country strong and beautiful,” he added.
Despite still being a popular figure, Lyngdoh does not believe that his rejoining will make a big difference to the Congress, as the party has to work as a team in order to achieve its goals. Lyngdoh is still remembered positively for the strong line he took against militancy while he was Home Minister and this could count in his favour. Since leaving politics, he stayed in the public consciousness by becoming Vice-Chancellor of Martin Luther Christian University and through his music and promotion of tourism.
“The idea is to make the party relevant. People have to see a future by investing their votes in the party,” he said, adding that the Congress needs to connect to farmers, youths and entrepreneurs by finding out what their aspirations are.
On specific issues relevant to the state, Lyngdoh said that while not widespread, there are “certain pockets of the city (Shillong) where people are starting to take the law into their own hands and that is a bad precedent”.
The August 15 incident where masked youths snatched weapons from the police and brandished them in public was more of an emotional than a rational reaction.
“We have to learn to be rational, especially in today’s world where social media has made it (the world) so small we have to be careful how we react to things because it can be misinterpreted in certain quarters,” Lyngdoh said.
