Meghalaya will not suffer if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not part of the state government, advocate and Congressman Erwin K Sutnga has assured Highland Post because of the nature of the federal structure of the country.
He rejected the perception that the BJP-led central government would take revenge on Meghalaya if the saffron party, which has just two MLAs, is kicked out or withdraws support from the government by cutting financial aid and projects in the state.
“Just because the BJP is there at the Centre it does not mean we will lose out on schemes and projects. It just might be that out of 100 percent that we may get by being aligned with the BJP, we may get another 20 percent extra,” he told HP recently.
He stressed that financial rules and the federal relationship between Meghalaya and the government of India mean states cannot be deprived whatever government it has.
“There is a concept of cooperative federalism and there is also a concept of un-cooperative federalism. If there is un-cooperative federalism and the central government does anything to a state which is a non-BJP state we have the right to raise our voices and we have the right to go to court as well,” he said.
The people need to clearly understand their rights and not be afraid of false threats, Sutnga stated, adding that Meghalaya needs a government that ensures the rights of every citizen and not a government that consumes everything for itself.
“We have seen what the Covid-19 pandemic has done to the poor and that employment generation at present is zero, industrialization is practically zero. Tourism is picking up but what sort of tourism are we talking about, because there is a lot of danger that comes along with tourism like a possibility of corruption of a society through it,” he said.
“Now they (the state government) have further promoted gambling, which could be even worse. In some states there are inquiries probing whether casinos and the gambling industry are being used to launder black money. These are the dangers brought by the present government,” Sutnga added.
