Shillong, March 12: The Bharatiya Janata Party expresses its deep concern over the violence that erupted on the 9th and 10th of March in Chibinang, Tura, and other parts of the Garo Hills in Meghalaya and urge that peace and normalcy be restored across the region at the earliest.
The BJP wants to state its position clearly: no infiltrator should be allowed to contest in the elections of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council. The GHADC is a body established under the Sixth Schedule of our Constitution to protect the rights and self-governance of indigenous tribal communities. That protection must be upheld.
Whether it is the Tribal Autonomous District Council elections, the Legislative Assembly elections, or the Parliamentary elections, no infiltrator should be permitted to infiltrate any of these democratic processes, anywhere in India.
Particularly in the Tribal Autonomous District Council areas, we are observing a deeply troubling pattern. The infiltrators are marrying into local communities, and through these marriages, they obtain their titles along with other local documents like Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, ration cards, and attempt to present themselves as legitimate residents.
This also enables them to acquire lands and property in that area. This is not migration. This is a systematic subversion of identity, of tribal rights, and of our electoral process. The BJP is in active discussions, and we are insistent that the strictest possible laws be enacted against this practice at the earliest.
In future this law will preserve their lands, property and people of Garo tribe from infiltrators who are slowly occupying their resources, land, property and people through marriage. Those who enter our country illegally and attempt to manipulate our election and administration must face the full force of the law.
In the present circumstances, we wish to assure the people of Meghalaya: the BJP’s Central Government stands ready and willing to assist the State Government in restoring peace across the entire Garo Hills region.
The people of the North-East deserve better. The tribal communities of Garo Hills deserve the protection that the Constitution promises them, said Mr. Rikman G Momin State President BJP Meghalaya Pradesh.
