Mukul Sangma: Assam-Meghalaya border pact is an agreement between two anti-people govts

The purpose of being in Congress was to serve the interest of the people…that encompasses people from all walks of life, all backgrounds — linguistic, cultural, religious. But the Congress was not living up to this expectation, even after repeated reminders from all of us who were once a part of it. If you do not want to prepare yourself to take on the might of the BJP and their agenda… If you cannot protect and preserve the spirit of our democracy, then what is the point? You cannot use kid gloves when you are in the boxing ring…and get knocked out!

But are people accepting you as a TMC man? How has the reception been from them?

Amazing. The kind of response that I have received reflects their trust and confidence for restoring the glory of the state. It is the matter of believing in myself and believing in the people. These two things… once they synergise then things work out.

Mukul Sangma interacts with locals during campaigning. (Express Photo)

What about the “outsider”/“party from West Bengal” tag for the TMC?

(Those attacks) are condemnable. And it does not matter on the ground. Everyone knows what the candidate stands for. You must remember every political party (no matter where they are from) has state units, and they have their leaders of the state. Our forefathers have fought for our statehood…and till now, the idea is to be governed by our own people.

What about the Assam-Meghalaya border pact? Your manifesto says it will be revoked.

Well, we are talking about an agreement between two anti-people governments… Both the governments (Assam and Meghalaya) should have looked at the sentiments of the people. Look at the Northeast Reorganisation Act (1971), which mandated the demarcation of the border — based on which the Survey of India demarcated the inter-state boundary. Even at that moment, the leaders of the state did not accept the demarcation. The people did not accept this demarcation… All land in Meghalaya belong to the people, not the government. So what is the agreement based on? The areas of differences remain.

The former CM is TMC’s face in the Meghalaya Assembly polls. (Express Photo)

Meghalaya has a history of throwing up fractured mandates. Your comments?

I have reasons to believe in the resolve of the people to put the interests of the state before anything else…Therefore, they will unite, they will come together to bring a change. The overall job as a political party is to see that we keep on reminding the electorate about this – and this is what we have been doing… I have no reason to believe that we (TMC) won’t have the numbers.

The TMC has not officially announced a chief ministerial face… if the party gets the mandate, who will be the chief minister?

I cannot comment on this at the moment… but let me say it like this: Samajhdaron ke liye ishara hi kaafi hai (for the wise, even a hint is good enough).