Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today said that the behaviour of the VPP legislators in front of Governor Phagu Chauhan is very embarrassing and “doesn’t send a good reflection of our members and the way the House is being run.”
“We have had occasions in the past where the Governor has not addressed the House in English with the primary reason being the limitation that the respected Governor had in terms of fluency with a particular language, and not being able to speak or read a particular language which is normal in a diverse country like India. As per the Governor’s capacity at that point in time, the past Governors have also requested that they be allowed to speak in a language or read in the language that they’re comfortable with and that is a reason why the honourable Governor because of his limitations with English has requested and that he be allowed to read in Hindi,” Sangma said.
Justifying that the English version of the entire Governor’s address today was placed in the House for the members to refer to and to read, the Chief Minister said, “When the Governor is speaking it’s a kind of a very sacred constitutional responsibility and one should not take it in a very light manner. When a proceeding like that is taking place, there should be a certain level of respect and decorum that needs to be maintained in the House.”
Stating that even if there are issues and concern that is not the moment to bring out those concerns especially when the Governor was reading his speech, Sangma asked, “What if today any of our members want to go to any other state that does not speak in English and was told to speak in Hindi or Tamil or they will not be allowed to speak? Obviously, these kinds of things cannot happen. We’re in a global world and language is something that just happens to be a way of communication.”
“There will be many situations in which some of our members that are not able to speak in Hindi, may have to go to Delhi and have to meet Ministers in Delhi to get different support for their constituencies and for the state. Now if you go there and then suddenly the minister says if you don’t speak in Hindi to me, I will not listen to you and cannot enter my room. That’s not the way things work. You have to realise and be mature about the entire thing,” Sangma added.
He also said that just because a person is not able to speak in a particular language does not mean a person is disrespecting our people or a language and it is wrong to draw that conclusion.
“I would urge the members to not engage in such kinds of scenes and create these kinds of situations and there are many other ways in which we can raise the concerns,” Sangma said.
