Shillong, September 20: The President of the Hynñiewtrep Youth Council (HYC), Robertjune Kharjahrin has urged the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to include in their peace talk with the Indian Government the demand to implement the Inner Line Permit in Meghalaya.
The HNLC is a militant group from the Khasi-Jaintia Hills and is now in the midst of a tripartite peace talk with the Indian and the State Government. The leader of the HYC has requested the HNLC to include the ILP issue in the peace talk as had been done by the militant groups of Mizoram and Nagaland when they had the peace talks with the Government.
Kharjahrin said that from time to time the HNLC has been a group that has supported the demand to implement the ILP, and the organisation from its end feels that this time it wants to urge upon the HNLC, which has supported this issue in the past, through this peace talk, the organisation requests the HNLC to also include the ILP as one of the talking points.
He said that if the HNLC helps take on this matter of the community, the organisation expects the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to listen, and this will not be a gain for the members of the HNLC but for the State and the community, and added that putting the ILP issue as a talking point for the HNLC will make the Indian Government listen and implement the ILP in the same way as it has been implemented in Nagaland and Mizoram.
On the other hand, the leader of the HYC said that even though the peace talk is one which is free of any conditions, no peace talk can be held without issues or points to be considered. He also said that the peace talk of the HNLC with the Indian Government is not the same as a surrender, but it is the coming forward to talk amicably with understanding, for the difference of opinion of the HNLC with the Indian Government is a political issue, and this requires a political dialogue.
Kharjahrin said that the peace talk is to take into consideration the basis of the demands of the rights of the community, and one of the special rights is the right for governance and ownership rights to remain with the indigenous locals, and the ILP has the aim to safeguard the local indigenous community from being oppressed by other communities.
