The Meghalaya unit vice president of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), George Lyngdoh has warned that any wrong step taken in regards to the state reservation policy would bring misunderstanding among the three major tribes - Khasi, Jaintia and Garo.
Lyngdoh said the Meghalaya reservation policy is a very sensitive issue considering the fact that it relates to the aspirations and the future of the youth.
"Therefore, any wrong step in this direction being a sensitive matter would bring a different kind of emotions and misunderstanding that would be detrimental to the long historic bond and understanding between the various communities in the state, the major tribes," he said.
"Therefore, the policy makers and the leaders have to take into consideration the sentiments, emotions and historic aspects as well as the need to maintain the communal peace and harmony amongst the three tribes. It should not come with any kind of things that would only disrupt peace and harmony at the cost of the future of the youth. Any policy has to bring harmony and also equity," the AITC leader added.
On the implementation of the roster system, Lyngdoh questioned the state government's decision to implement the roster system with retrospective effect.
According to him, the court's ruling was unclear and the order of the court had to be interpreted by the state government and in its interpretation, the state government took decision with a retrospective effect.
He said that the state government has to make the people understand why in the first place a retrospective effect was taken into consideration and not a prospective one.
When asked if the court had clearly stated that these are policy matters best left to the legislature and the executive, the AITC leader said, "So the question is whether the state government hurriedly rushed into the implementation of the roster without understanding the full implication of the court order. So whether that urgency was actually needed before the full understanding of the court order was actually imbibed by the policy makers and both at the executive level and also at the legislative level. So whether this actual understanding of the court order was actually discussed so whether it is left to one or two to decide with a retrospective effect."
He alleged that some of the cabinet ministers do not even understand what a roster system is and said, "What I could hear from the discussion is that even some of the policy makers, some of the ministers being in the cabinet also could not understand what a roster system is. So now they have put themselves in a spot where now they not only have to understand the roster system, they also have to understand the retrospective and prospective effect."
On the Voice of the People Party (VPP)'s demand review of the entire policy, Lyngdoh said if any policy is in question considering both their political aspiration and also taking the aspirations of the citizens especially the youth into consideration, they should also come with a suggestion as to what they want adding that anybody can question a policy that is in place but the fact is it is upon the responsible leaders to suggest to what should be the next step forward.
"I would say that various political parties should come up with their own suggestions as well so that it is the collective responsibility of each and every political party and leaders and in fact every citizens of the state if any policy is being questioned then we should also come with solutions as to how we will finally decide on a new policy or try to change an existing policy but at the same time maintain communal harmony and equity," he added.
Further, Lyngdoh said for any policy matter, there will be a group that will be supporting that particular policy and there will be a group that will be opposing that particular policy.
"Therefore, if amendments have to be made to a particular policy, they have to take into consideration the aspirations as well as the current situation prevailing in the state," he asserted.
