VPP threatens to boycott budget session if guv speaks in Hindi

Shillong: The opposition Voice of the People Party (VPP) in Meghalaya on Friday said it would not be present in the state assembly on the first day of the budget session on February 16, if governor Phagu Chauhan addressed the house in Hindi without an English translator.The decision taken by the parliamentary party meeting of the VPP on January 30 was submitted to the assembly speaker, Thomas A Sangma, on Friday.In a letter to Sangma, secretary of the VPP Parliamentary Party, Heavingstone Kharpran said given the significance of the budget session and its implications for the people of the state, it is imperative that all members of the assembly are able to fully comprehend and engage with the proceedings. “However, it has been observed that in previous sessions, the governor addressed the house primarily in Hindi, which had caused great inconvenience to members who are not comfortable in Hindi language and also keeping in mind that Hindi is not the official language of Meghalaya,” the letter said. The VPP had staged a walkout in protest against governor Chauhan addressing the house in Hindi on the first day of the budget session last year too.Current cabinet minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, who is now with the ruling National People’s Party (NPP), had, as a Congress legislator walked out of the Meghalaya assembly on the first day of the budget session in 2018 as a mark of protest against the then governor Ganga Prasad delivering his address in the house in Hindi instead of English.

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