The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is firmly in favour of inclusion of the Khasi and Garo languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, general secretary Rituraj Sinha said today.
Meghalaya has been pushing for the two languages’ inclusion in the Eighth Schedule but with no success so far.
“We believe that these languages must be considered for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule and the BJP stands with the Khasi-Garo people for inclusion of these languages,” Sinha said today. “We will do our best after the election if we have an adequate number of seats. We will move this in the Legislative Assembly and work in close coordination with the central government to take this request.”
That last comment suggests that he did not know that the Assembly had passed a resolution in this regard in 2018. Sinha also said that the BJP could do more on the issue if it had a stronger position in the state, though he failed to explain why, if the two languages’ inclusion is merited, it has not yet been included by the central government already.
On uranium mining, which has always been a controversial subject in the state, he said that these are matters that need to be deliberated and once the new Assembly is elected a decision will be taken as per the requirements of the state, with environmental issues and National Green Tribunal guidelines taking precedence. The general public, pressure groups and political parties have been in near-complete unity in their opposition to uranium mining.
