Sangma, Lapang differs on NE students’ plight in South India

Shillong, Aug 17:  In what can be construed as the beginning of power struggle between Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and his predecessor, who is currently the North East Congress Coordination Committee (NECC) chairman and Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president DD Lapang, the latter contradicted the former by saying that the flight by students from Karnataka is not because of “rumour.”

Sangma had told reporters Thursday that the “mass exodus” of students and people from the north east from Karnataka was because of rumours and false “smses.”

However, Sangma’s party president Lapang Friday contradicted this claim and said, “When there is smoke, there is fire so I don’t believe it is a rumour when thousands of students are fleeing Bangalore and Pune.”

With just months away to the State Assembly election the incoherent statements by the two leaders- Sangma and Lapang- of the Congress party on the issue of “fear of attack on the north east students in Karnataka” as a backlash to the Assam communal clash has just exposed the fissures between these two leaders.

Sangma had dethroned Lapang from the Chief Minister’s post and the latter was accommodated as Congress party president.

Speaking about the flight of the North East students from Karnataka, Lapang said if it was just a rumour how come thousands of student from different states of the north east have fled Bangalore.

Lapang even said that the mass exodus of the north east students may be a well planned by some political parties or agencies to gain political mileage. He, however, refuse to name any political party who might be behind this “mischief.”

Lapang, who returned from New Delhi Thursday, had  submitted letter to the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde urging him to take  sternlight of NE students from Karnataka and Pune.

Lapang wrote that the recent incidents of violence perpetrated by anti-national elements on the people of the northeast in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry and Maharashtra has caused much discontentment and seriously affected the sentiments of the people.

Lapang letter observed, “This is not the first instances that such discriminatory attacks have been made on them (northeasterners). Such incidents are bound to affect their mindset and performance,  posing a grave threat to their security.”