SHILLONG, AUG 24: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Monday said the government has officially written to the Khasi Students Union (KSU) inviting them for talks on their five-point agenda.
“We have written officially to the Khasi Students Union (KSU) and asked them to come for discussion and for talks. We expect we will get some response maybe by today evening or maybe by tomorrow and we will discuss all five agendas and the points,” Sangma told reporters.
On the allegation that the government has not acted on their demands, the CM said, “Let me assure you that is not the case and on most fronts, in fact, work has been happening. There has been some communication gap and whatever points that have come up, we will clarify in the joint meeting that we will have with the members of the KSU.”
“So, whatever clarifications that are required we will give them but from our side, as I said, in almost all aspects, whether this organization or any other organization that has come forward, the government has been very prompt in responding to most of it in the sense we are very clear on what we can do and what we cannot do. Wherever we can do, we have given the commitment and we move forward. There is some communication gap. We will ensure we have a meeting and we will clarify all those points,” he added.
On whether KSU has responded to the government’s appeal, Sangma said, “The letter must have gone by now but we will get to know maybe later in the afternoon or in the evening.”
Asked about the demand to release the arrested KSU leaders and revoke MMPO/MPDA invoked against them, the chief minister asserted that law will take its own course.
“The law is in place for a reason and whatever happens, the law will take its course and therefore it will be incorrect for me or anybody to simply come in and say that the rules and the laws will change because it’s one organization or different organizations or one individual. I think that is not proper in governance. Therefore, please allow the law to take its own course and I think it is not proper for us to interfere and the laws have been made for that purpose and it will move ahead with that purpose,” he said.
On the status of investigation into the August 19 violence, he said, “I don’t have that information with me right now. I will review the situation later today but as I said, we have identified five masked miscreants and actions have been taken and further steps will be continued to ensure all the miscreants who were involved and led to the situation, will be brought to justice.”
On whether the government will come up with SOPs for rallies and processions, Sangma said normally conditions and do’s and don’ts are laid down while granting permission.
“Now what we will have to do is that we have to increase those do’s and don’ts and we will have to add. We will also ensure that we are able to impose stricter regulations and as I said, the terms and conditions will always be there when the permission is granted,” he said.
Denying intelligence failure in handling the bike rally, the chief minister said, “It is a kind of a buzzword, you know, that whenever any situation happens, then the most jazzy word to use is intelligence failure. There was no intelligence failure as such. All aspects were looked into but to be very frank, we also work in one sense on the basis of some trust and some kind of assurance and we move forward with that kind of trust and assurance.”
He said the administration had deployed personnel along the routes but monitoring became complex due to the scale and geographic spread of the incidents.
“Our manpower was also spread out and if it was in one place it would be easier. Our numbers are there – so all these challenges were there but most importantly, I want to mention that there was a very clear understanding that this rally will be peaceful,” he said.
The CM added that the behaviour of the miscreants was unprecedented and had surprised even the public.
“People are quite surprised and shocked at the way these miscreants have behaved, which was something, in a way, unprecedented, never seen before. But was it an intelligence failure? No. We were caught by surprise in some sense by the scale and the action. Yes, we were, but we knew what was happening. But the scale was something, as I said, we have not seen in the past and it went to a scale where it was unprecedented,” he stated.
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