AITC cannot claim to be voice of the people by hijacking MLAs in Meghalaya: James

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 11, 2022

NPP leader and cabinet minister James K Sangma on Monday said people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at other people’s houses.

Speaking to reporters, Sangma said “The opposition are also people who have been in the ruling government in the past. There have been many accusations which have been hurled against them and they are also answerable for those accusations but just to throw stones and just to point fingers at others that too with unsubstantiated facts and data is I think very wrong.”

This came after the AITC has been attacking the MDA government on a daily basis over issues of alleged corruption and misgovernance.

Stating that AITC cannot claim to be the voice of the people, Sangma said, “Without having fought a single election and by just hijacking some of the MLAs and brought them into their fold I don’t think that gives them the right to say that they are the voice of the people and that they represent the voice of the people. It is elections which actually give the mandate to the people.”

The NPP leader said that the recent challenge made by the AITC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale for a debate was not at all required. He added that the Chief Minister has been very clear that if all the ministers in the government were to start engaging in public debates who would come to the secretariat and who would do their work.

“We appreciate the concerns of Gokhale, he is very free to express his views but then challenging the chief minister or deputy chief minister I think that is something not required because the chief minister and the deputy chief minister they have been very accessible to the press, they have taken questions from all of you. The press is the fourth estate and all of you are the voice of the people who would like to ask questions on behalf of the people of the state and they have been answering those questions and I think that should suffice,” he said.

The NPP leader said people are the best judge and whether they will accept the AITC or not, that we will have to see after the 2023 elections.