The first day of the budget session of the State Assembly today saw commotion and disruption in the House over the speech in Hindi by Governor Phagu Chauhan.
Voice of People Party (VPP) MLA Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit led the charge when he strongly objected to the speech in Hindi by the Governor.
As soon as Chauhan started to read his speech in Hindi, Basaiawmoit interrupted by saying that the Governor should address the House in a language that all MLAs understand.
Basaiawmoit also said that Meghalaya is not a Hindi-speaking State and the Governor’s speech in Hindi is against the sentiments of the people. He also said the Centre cannot impose Hindi on the people of Meghalaya.
Assembly Speaker Thomas A. Sangma and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma intervened and explained that the translated speech has been distributed since the Governor has ‘limitations’ reading in English.
The Chief Minister also said that such kind of behaviour from an elected senior MLA was not expected.
“If an individual is not able to read in English then we cannot impose it on the individual. The written speech has been circulated in the House. He is not doing it because he wants to do it. He is doing it because he has limitations of reading. It is sad that the Governor is being disrespectful in this way,” the chief minister said.
Similarly, the Speaker said that he would allow the Governor to address the House in Hindi since a written speech in English was circulated among all the members.
But Basaiawmoit quoted Rule 20 of the Rules of Procedures and Conduct in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly and said that as per the rule, the language that should be used in the Assembly is English. He also said that the House should not allow the tradition of the Governor speaking in Hindi.
“May I inform the Governor through the Speaker that Meghalaya is not a Hindi speaking State. I would like to remind each one of us that people and leaders of the State decided to part ways with Assam after it tried to impose Assamese as an official language. So I feel we should not allow this to be a tradition in this august House,” he said.
“I want to appeal to the Governor to address us in the language we all understand,” Basaiawmoit added.
The VPP legislator also said that that the House in the past had passed a resolution demanding for the inclusion of Khasi and Garo in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution but the Government of India did not pay any heed to the resolution.
As the Governor went on to read his speech, the four VPP legislators disrupted by shouting slogans.
Before leading his MLAs to walk out of the House as a mark of protest, Basaiawmoit said, “Since we don’t understand what the Governor is saying we will walk out of the House. Those who don’t feel insulted may stay in their seats.”
All through the entire episode, the Governor was quiet and looked stunned. The moment the four VPP legislators walked out, he resumed his speech in Hindi.
