Tura, Feb 07: The Conglomeration of the NGOs/Civil Societies from Garo Hills i.e. GSU, FKJGP, ADE, FAF, AYWO & NESO hereby vehemently oppose the appointment of Shri. Rakesh A. Sangma (formerly known as Rakesh Newar Sangma) to the post of the Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the GHADC, owing to his background.
It may be mentioned that Rakesh A. Sangma and his siblings has in their school life always identified themselves as “Newar” and not “A. Sangma” however, in their college life they changed their identity to “Newar Sangma” for reasons better known to them, however, prior to the GHADC election Shri. Rakesh Newar Sangma filed an affidavit and started identifying himself as Rakesh A. Sangma the A representing the A.gitok clan.
The NGOs of Garo Hills suspect that it was politically conducive for him to identify himself as a bona-fide Garo to contest the election as the seat from 7 Babelapara Constituency from which he contested wasa tribal majority electorate and people may not have taken very kindly to a non-tribal candidate.
It may be mentioned that Shri. Rakesh Newar Sangma’s mother does belong to the A.gitok clan and thus, he could identify as an A.gitok by virtue of the matrilineal society of the Garo Society, however, the fact that none of the family members of Rakesh Newar Sangma has ever practiced the matrilineal culture of the Garo Society, cannot be ignored.
As per our Garo matrilineal culture a person after marriage has to leave their parents house to live with their wives and prioritize his wife’s clan over his own, however, Both Rakesh Newar Sangma and his brother has made their wives leave their parents’ house and live with his parents.
This is not the only unusual thing about their family, it is an open secret that Mr. Rakesh Newar Sangma and his family members have never lived as per the Garo Culture and does not understand nor practiced the Garo Cultrure their whole life. Neither, do their family’s rites and rituals nor religious beliefs align with that of the Garo Society.
They have always practiced their father’s culture, tradition and religious beliefs who, belongs to the Newar clan of the Nepali Community. We are pointing out these facts not to malign him or his family members however, these facts are important to be mentioned to understand our opposition to him being appointed as the CEM of GHADC.
The greatest objection of Rakesh A. Sangma being elected as the CEM of the GHADC is because the CEM of GHADC exercises Judicial Power of the highest Authority in the GHADC on all traditional Civil Cases. The civil cases involve sensitive issues in regards to our traditional institutions and land.
Nokmas who are the guardian of our A.kings land owned by a clan is appointed by the CEM of the GHADC, any dispute between two A.kings will be judged by the CEM, any dispute within a clan and an A.king over the right of ownership of Nokmas will be judged by the CEM, designation of New A.kings for any Clan will be ordered by the CEM and the list goes on.
These mentioned Judicial Powers of the CEM is of great significance for the preservation of the Identityof the Garos and preservation of the Culture of the Garo Society as A.kings and Nokmas are pivotal in the determination of the Garo Identity andhow can a person who never lived his life following the Garo Culture and Tradition give his verdict on such sensitive issues?
Therefore, the NGOs are appealing to the political leaders of this state in general and the politicians of Garo Hills in particular to take note of our Concerns and overturn the decision to appoint Rakesh A. Sangma from the post of the CEM of GHADC. They also, hereby appeal Rakesh A. Sangma to resign from the post owing moral responsibility.
In these regard the conglomeration of NGOs has called for a Civil Disobedience Movement in all of Garo Hills of which the 1st Phase was a pen down strike of GHADC on the 1st and 2nd of February 2022 which was a huge success, consecutively followed by a Non Cooperation Movement on the 3rd and 4th of February 2022 as the 2nd phase which too witnessed massive public support.
And due to the lack of any response from any corner we have called for the 3rd Phase of the Civil Disobedience Movement which will be a Night Road Blockade in all of Garo Hills on the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th of February 2022 from 9 pm to 5 am.
The NGOs also reiterate that until and unless Shri. Rakesh A. Sangma is removed from his post or he voluntarily steps down from the CEMs post, the Civil Disobedience movement will continue and more stringent steps will be initiated under different phases of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
The only reason we put on hold our NCM is owing to the Examination Schedules of different Boards and Universities, and we appeal the people of Garo Hills to be ready for further NCMs and other demonstrations whenever there is a break in the exam dates.
The NGOs also appeal to all institutions that we will only bar the Board and University exams and any internal exams if coincides with our demonstrations be postponed for another date or dates in the interest of the Garo Cause. The press statement was sign by Mr. Tengsak G.Momin President GSU, Mr. Manseng A. Sangma Chief Adviser GSU, Mr. Dalseng Bira Ch. Momin President ADE,Mr. Pritam R. Marak President and Raksrang Sangma General secretary FKJGP Garo Hills, Sengbath Ch. Marak President AYWO. Brinbal Sangma, President Federation for A.chik Freedom.
