Mutual antagonism between the United Democratic Party (UDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could, at least partially, have led to the case against Tura MDC Bernard Marak, state Congress leader and Shillong MP Vincent Pala has said.
That does not mean that Marak is innocent, Pala told Highland Post. According to him, it is more likely that there were illegal activities going on in Marak’s farmhouse and the UDP used this to their advantage and went after the MDC, who is a trenchant critic of the government.
Marak, the state BJP vice-president, has been under arrest since late last month after police raided a property belonging to him in Tura on suspicion that it was being used as a brothel.
“It is a known fact that these two parties, the BJP and UDP, don’t get along in the MDA (Meghalaya Democratic Alliance),” Pala said.
On the one hand, the BJP, though the central government, has forced all check gates operating on national highways to close, including those belonging to district councils. These were a major source of revenue for the councils and, it was alleged by several quarters, a supply of ill-gotten wealth through extortion.
The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) is currently led by a UDP MDC, Titosstarwell Chyne. His party colleague Lahkmen Rymbui is the Home Minister, who is in charge of the police.
“It seems that the UDP, which is controlling the Home Department, wants to avenge itself on the BJP for the closure of the check gates,” Pala claimed.
Another reason could be the approaching state elections, which must be held by March 2023.
The UDP has no elected members, either MDCs or MLAs in Garo Hills but recorded several second place finishes in the last GHADC election. However, the BJP is also growing steadily, it claims, and there could be a tough fight between the two. The BJP state leadership has also been claiming, since Marak’s arrest, that its party workers are being harassed by the police in Tura.
Marak is also a fierce opponent of Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma. The Tura MDC was also widely known to have been keen to challenge Sangma in his South Tura Assembly seat at the next election. Pala suggested that the twin interests of the CM and the UDP could have also played their part in Marak’s arrest.
“Why did the police raid not take place a long time back when the complaints were filed?” Pala asked; police believe that the farmhouse was the place where a minor girl had been raped repeatedly earlier this year. “And why were all those arrested from the premises not treated equally? Why were most of them released? It is because these are connected to the powerful,” he added while saying that these reasons make him suspect that Marak is guilty while also the victim of a political plot.
