The Instrument of Accession, the document that brought the Khasi states into the Indian Union, should be the guiding force behind any resolution to the longstanding dispute between Meghalaya and Assam on the border issue, state Congress working president Ampareen Lyngdoh said today.
“We should respect the Instrument of Accession, which was the basis on which the Khasi states were willing to be part of India,” she told reporters. “Assam cannot take this away from us. We don’t want bloodshed, we want dialogue, discussion and history should be the basis of these discussions.”
Her comments come on a day when Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma took a helicopter trip down to Langpih, one of the most hotly-contested points of dispute between the two states.
Lyngdoh questioned the apparent urgency of the two CMs in trying to quickly solve the issue, which, she feared, could miss out on important considerations.
For one thing, she wondered if Meghalaya had compiled the paperwork to back its claims to border lands and what was the result of the last boundary committee’s findings. Lyngdoh was also a little surprised to see that the Chief Executive Member of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, Titosstarwell Chyne, had not been invited along for the Langpih visit and she expressed concern that the council’s views were not being considered.
“We waited for 25 years and we did not see a solution to the boundary issue,” the East Shillong MLA said. “We have waited for almost 50 years and we don’t need to be in a hurry because we cannot give anything to Assam nor take anything in return.”
Though the opposition legislator might by wary, the Meghalaya government has been harping on the activity it has shown in trying to resolve the border dispute, as it almost certainly is hoping to be able to make a big announcement in time for Meghalaya’s 50th anniversary next year.
When asked about the government’s claim that it has been able to do something on the issue where the Congress was unable to do so for all the years that it was in power, Lyngdoh, expectedly, said that politics should be left out when it comes to Meghalaya’s territory.
“Tomorrow I may not be in politics any longer or even be a Congresswoman but our children will still be the inheritors of the state. If you are going to blame Congress for not having sorted out the boundary dispute, when will you also blame our forefathers in 1971-72 for that as well?” she questioned. “Just be grateful for what our forefathers did and for the political parties that fought non-violently to get us a state of our own.”
Instead of trying to score political points by rushing through an agreement that could well leave many Meghalayans unhappy if concessions are made to Assam, Lyngdoh said that the government should rather focus on Covid-pandemic induced disruptions to economic stability and livelihoods, education and healthcare, which have all, she said, been ignored by the authorities.
