SHILLONG: Newly elected Member of Parliament (MP) from Tura constituency, Saleng A Sangma, has strongly criticised Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his controversial comments regarding the NDA candidates’ electoral defeats in Meghalaya and Nagaland.
In a direct rebuttal to Sarma’s statements, the Congress MP asserted that the Assam Chief Minister must be grappling with some form of “mental disorder” for insinuating that Christians in Meghalaya exhibited bias by not voting for the NDA.
“He (Sarma) was the one who initially raised the issue of religion during his election campaign. We’ve all witnessed his administration’s actions targeting areas primarily inhabited by individuals of a specific faith within the state. Now, he’s attributing blame to Christians; it leads one to question his mental stability,” Sangma told the press.
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Sarma’s remarks on the issue had earlier elicited strong reactions from political parties in both Meghalaya and Nagaland.
Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, chief of the Voice of the People Party (VPP) in Meghalaya, rebuked Sarma, labelling him a “habitual loose talker” and asserted that he had no authority to meddle in the affairs of Meghalaya’s recent Parliamentary elections.
Similarly, the Rising People’s Party (RPP) in Nagaland condemned Sarma’s comments, accusing him of “consistently berating Christians” and attributing the NDA’s electoral defeat to the community.
The Assam government faced criticism from various Northeastern states for its Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024, which aimed to “eliminate unscientific healing methods”.
A day after the cabinet okayed the Bill in February, the Assam Christian Forum criticised the Chief Minister for equating magical healing with proselytization, calling his statements “misguided and misleading”.
