The National People’s Party (NPP) has threatened to file a defamation case against local newspaper The Shillong Times over its headline today, which referred to Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s attack on the Chief Minister, dubbing him ‘Conman’ Sangma.
In a press release today, NPP spokesperson Bajop Pyngrope said that the newspaper must apologise and acknowledge that it crossed the line or else the party will file a defamation case.
Ironically, Pyngrope, in his time at the Congress Party, which he ditched for the NPP only this year, used to take frequent digs at the Chief Minister, the NPP and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A selection of his comments include saying that the NPP has ruined the state, that the CM is a hypocrite for doing the opposite of what he says, that every portfolio that James Sangma holds is full of disorder, that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is untrustworthy and that the BJP plays dirty.
Today, he described the headline in The Shillong Times as “derogatory” and said that the paper is falling prey to “cheap propaganda” of the TMC.
“We, as a political party, are not against criticism. However, targeting the head of a state with such spiteful and abusive remarks is not acceptable,” Pyngrope said, adding that it is an attempt to ridicule, malign and run a smear campaign against the CM.
He then warned Meghalayans that the TMC will bring in a culture of “abuse, hostility, mud-slinging and misinformation,” which, he said, is “against our own indigenous culture.”
TMC electioneering is “full of violence and aggression”, something alien to Meghalaya and this is the reason it will fail in the state, he added.
