Pastor turned politician, Kyrsoi Pyrtuh has said that the BJP tries to turn country into ‘Hindu Rashtra’ by bringing in the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which minorities should be weary of it.
“I will never accept the UCC and the people of the state should also not accept the UCC. However, it is also a wakeup call to us that we need to reform our personal laws and cannot remain divided but take a collective decision on the matter,” he told Highland Post.
He said that the context in Meghalaya is different and unique because the State comprises of different clans, Himas and religions and for laws like UCC, a collective decision should be taken and people cannot remain divided.
Pyrtuh observed that the Sixth Schedule is not strong enough to protect the indigenous tribes of the state since the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India prevails over the laws under the Sixth Schedule.
“When we talk of issues like uranium mining, railways, etc in the state, it was the strength of the collective and popular voices of protest from outside that prevented the district council to proceed and give its consent for such activities. Had there been no outside protest and everything was to proceed constitutionally, then the state and parliament laws would have prevailed over the Sixth Schedule,” he opined.
“If the members in the district councils want to give the Sixth Schedule more teeth then they should formulate laws that are suitable with time, that still preserved the roots and that will stand if there is a legal scrutiny,” he said, adding, these should be progressive laws that will still preserve the basic and grass root customary practices.
He also said that the status and rank of the Himas should also be clearly mentioned in the Sixth Schedule and be reviewed because at present they are totally under the mercy of the district council, including the appointments and removal of the Syiems and acting Syiems, which are now being used for political reasons.
Pyrtuh opined that to further strengthen the Sixth Schedule the members also have to keep in mind that the areas under it are rich in natural resources like uranium, coal, etc and in the amendment no clause and section should be incorporated that will pave an opportunity for other outside vested interest that will come and loot all the natural resources from us.
Referring to the Village Administration Bill (VAB) that was supposed to look at the laws of the grass root institutions like the dorbar shnong, he however said that this never saw the light of the day only because one thing was not clear, which was the participation of women.
“A law like the VAB can bring many benefits like direct funding to the dorbar shnong for school, sanitation, health care etc. but the KHADC wasn’t clear on the bill related to women’s participation. In modern democracy you can no longer say that women cannot take part in decision making in dorbars. Have you gone back to history and folklore where there are Himas where the Syiem was a woman,” he said in reference to further make the Sixth Schedule stronger.
