Together with the rest of the world, the Awaken India Movement (AIM) Meghalaya State Unit today rallied at Jaiaw Lumpyllon seeking ‘Justice for freedom’ and ‘Freedom to Live’.
The movement claims to defend the fundamental rights of the citizen against the various COVID restrictions imposed by the government.
At the rally, chairman of AIM Meghalaya, Banshai Marbaniang reiterated that they are not against the Covid vaccine, but the various restrictions imposed by the government that has affected livelihood especially the poor and needy. “If there are lockdowns, containment and restrictions because of the coronavirus then what about cigarettes that causes cancer and kill people every day,” he said.
“They say prevention is better than cure then why are all the companies that manufacture cigarettes that cause cancer are not closed down to control death and disease of cancer and where is the vaccine roll out for cancer?” he asked.
Pointing out that the public elects their political representatives as per the rights given by the Constitution of India, he said, “Most of our MLAs are uneducated and does not have the knowledge about the fundamental rights. Government employees who are not vaccinated are asked to produce the test report every 10 days, which is same as forcing to take the vaccine.”
He said daily wages earners and especially the street hawkers who hardly earn Rs 100 a day at times fall under containment zones without assistance which is like leaving them to die of famine.
“If the government justifies all these restrictions affecting the livelihood of the poor then they should also be able to provide the poor sections of the society with at least Rs 30, 000 a month,” he said.
He also alleged that the district councils considered as guardians of the tribals are actually platform for accumulating wealth to further climb into bigger platforms like MLAs and MPs with no regard for the protection of the people.
He also criticized the print media’s failure to highlight its last statement appealing to the public to participate in today’s rally and alleged the print media of being agents of the government.
“There are many genuine non-tribals who are citizens of our state and those pressure groups calling AIM Meghalaya as a non-tribal organisation should know that non-tribals are also human and they should know that this is not an organisation but a movement,” he added.
