SHILLONG, APR 12: National People’s Party (NPP) state president and deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong has accused the opposition Voice of the People’s Party (VPP) for behaving like “Talibans”.
Slamming the VPP for its politics of hate, Tynsong said, “I have seen their speeches. Firstly, they speak about secularism and pluralism but during canvassing, their actions, I have seen that they are like a group which captured Afghanistan, which we called as Taliban group. The Taliban group is ruling in Afghanistan now and what is happening in Afghanistan, you will see there are restrictions on the media, where they are not allowed to report anything. Furthermore, even girls are not allowed to go to school beyond matriculation.”
“And the issue which concerns me the most is the mindset and mentality of the VPP leaders because people, who dares to say others are wrong and that they are the only righteous people, that itself is an indication something is not right with them. Therefore, people have to take this into consideration as this is very serious, especially the manner in which they are canvassing,” he said.
His statement came two days after the VPP was served with show cause notices for attempting to disrupt election campaigns of the National People’s Party (NPP).
Castigating the VPP for talking big, Tynsong said, “They feel that only Khasis or people of the Hynniewtrep, who can take the state forward but I feel that it is not the time for them to speak because like one gentleman rightly pointed out that this party is only a district-wise party which is based in East Khasi Hills, as they don’t have their base in Garo Hills.”
He also challenged the VPP and said, “If you feel that your party is so strong, why not field candidates in Garo Hills. Why did you not field any candidate? That means you want to focus only on Khasi and Jaintia Hills and then you talk so big as if you can rule the entire state of Meghalaya just because you love the jaidbynriew.”
“But I tell you when we speak about secularism and pluralism, look, Meghalaya cannot even generate 10 percent of the revenue and that is why we have to totally depend on the Central government. It is okay if any political party is ruling at the Centre but for North Eastern states excluding Assam which has been able to cross 20-25 percent of revenue generation, we NE states have to totally depend on the revenue, schemes, funds from the central government. Therefore, stop talking big, because it is meaningless as I said we have seen and we have tried our best to improve our revenue generation but there is no way out. If you talk about industries, where do we have big industries except few cement factories apart from there is no scope to expand. This is one issue which we are facing,” he said.
Urging the people not to get fooled by such a political party, the NPP chief also predicted that the VPP is a party, which will disappear at any time from Meghalaya.
“Therefore, people should not get carried away and they should not be fooled because new political parties, when they speak, it feels like it is possible to touch the sky but within a short span of time even its name will disappear, I am not joking, even its name will be wiped out as was in the case of other (new political parties), this (VPP) will also disappear at any time,” he said.
