Shillong, June 09: The HYC-CEC, demands public apology from the National Media Channels- for their unverified and half-truths reporting of the incident and from Vipul Raghuvanshi the deceased’s brother to publicly accuse Meghalaya’s institutions of apathy and conspiracy that followed the unfortunate death of Raja Raghuvanshi and the disappearance and now reappearance of Sonam Raghuvanshi.
HYC demands a formal and unconditional apology from Vipul Raghuvanshi and Devi Singh, father of Sonam Raghuvanshi, who repeatedly undermined and publicly defamed the dignity of our institutions and casted aspersions on us all, the citizens of the State and more particularly our community.
“We were attacked, maligned, accused, defamed, and humiliated as a community and citizens of the State in the last few weeks. But yet we shunned violence and did not practice retribution inspite of all that was said and portrayed before the whole of India and the world”.
The HYC said that our people cooperated with the administration by providing important informations and helping in the search operation in their own individual capacity.
Yet, our culture was questioned and our brethren were labelled suspicious. This is nothing but an expose of the deep-rooted prejudice that mainland India holds against the tribal Northeast.
In light of this incident and many others that were reported in the earlier days, when persons from outside the State commits a crime and then fled away to other Staes without a trace, we hereby renew and reiterated our constitutional, legal, and moral demand for the immediate implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in Meghalaya.
Had ILP been implemented, the movement of outsiders into the State would have been documented, regulated, and recorded. There would be a formal mechanism of legal accountability for all entrants, especially those who disguise as tourists but carry ill-intent or commit a crime in the State.
ILP will ensures that the movement of people are regulated and each person entering and leaving the State are properly recorded. The current system that are in place are full of loopholes that allow our communities and our State to be disrespected, misunderstood and made scapegoats in times of crisis as felt in the present case.
To all those who have belittled, accused, defamed, and humiliated us – they want to say that HYC believed in the Constitution, as democratic society, and our community is governed by law, ethics, and tradition.
Our identity is not yours to question when things go wrong. Our hospitality is not a license for humiliation. And our peace-loving nature should not be mistaken for weakness.
