Author Archives: TARIQ ABDULLAH

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By JIM DAVIS

WHEN I WAS A KID ON THE FARM, I GOT A NICKEL A WEEK

I’D SLOP THE HOGS, MILK THE COWS, SHOVEL THE BARN…

GROOM THE GOATS…

I’LL GIVE YOU A DIME TO STOP TALKING

ANI

Miley Cyrus received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, marking a major career milestone. For the occasion, she wore a vintage Atelier Versace gown from Donatella Versace’s 2015 collection, previously worn by Heidi Klum at an amfAR Gala. The sheer, spider-web-inspired dress featured lace detailing, cutouts, and a metallic crisscross bodice. Cyrus styled her look with loose waves and side-swept bangs, and attended the ceremony with her mother, sister, and fiancé Maxx Morando. She expressed pride in receiving the honour and highlighted her custom archival Versace outfit, noting it was hand-picked from the designer’s archives. Donatella Versace and Anya Taylor-Joy also attended. The event reflected Cyrus’s ongoing preference for vintage, sustain-able fashion choices.

(IANS) Anne Hathaway revealed that she struggled with serious vision problems for nearly a decade, saying she was “legally blind” in one eye due to an early onset cataract. In a podcast interview, the Popcast appearance, she shared that the condition affected her from her early 30s to 40s, making her left eye vision significantly impaired. The The Devil Wears Prada actress explained that cataracts caused cloudy vision, impacting daily life until she eventually underwent surgery. She said she did not realise how much it had affected her until her vision was restored, adding that it helped calm her stress and improve her well-being. Hathaway expressed gratitude for her restored sight, calling it a “miracle” and reflecting on how modern treatment options made recovery possible.

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, May 24: Citing an “unbearable” cost-of-living crisis for daily wagers and rural farmers, the Hynñiewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) has demanded the Meghalaya government immediately slash state-levied taxes on petrol, diesel, and LPG to prevent a total economic breakdown for ordinary households.

Following the latest hike in fuel prices, HYC president Roy Kupar Synrem stated on Sunday that the rising costs are hitting vulnerable sections of society—including small business owners, transport operators, and students—particularly hard.

“The increase in transportation costs has triggered a sharp rise in the prices of essential goods and services, making everyday life extremely difficult for ordinary citizens,” Synrem said. He noted that in a state dependent on road transport, fuel costs directly dictate the price of basic necessities.

The council argued that the government cannot remain indifferent while citizens face excessive financial hardship. Synrem urged the state to review its specific taxes and levies on fuel and LPG, rather than treating them as luxury items.

Warning that public frustration is mounting, the HYC cautioned the government against delaying relief measures. (Contd on P-7)

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, May 24: The North-East-ern Hill University (NEHU) Academic Council (AC) will address confusion surrounding the Four-Year Undergradu-ate Programme (FYUP) and seek clari-fication from the Pro-Vice Chancellor and the NEP coordinator, senior faculty member Lakhon Kma assured students and parents.

The move follows concerns over a rumoured clause suggesting that stu-dents who enrol in the fourth year of the FYUP would forfeit their eligibil-ity for a three-year bachelor’s degree if they fail to clear their final-year papers, even if they have secured the required 120 credits.

Kma described the reported provi-sion as “absurd,” stating he found no such rule in University Ordinance OC-8 or Regulation RC-12. “I have gone through the relevant ordinances and regulations repeatedly and have not come across any such provision. If such a clause exists, it must be explained and, if found arbitrary, it will have to be done away with,” Kma said.

He confirmed the issue would be formally raised during the next Aca-demic Council meeting. Authorities will be asked to identify the source of the claim, which Kma said has caused “unnecessary anxiety.”

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By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, May 24: Sexual harassment allegations involving Meghalaya’s Under-23 women’s cricket team have exposed a deepening internal rift within the Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA), revealing serious administrative discord between its top officials.

The controversy, currently under inquiry by the Meghalaya State Commission for Women (MSCW), has highlighted a breakdown in coordination between MCA President James PK Sangma and Honorary Secretary Rayonald Kharkamni.

The friction became evident through two conflicting player lists issued on March 31 for the Under-23 Women’s NECDC tournament in Sikkim. A list signed by Kharkamni named Baiahunlang Mylliemngap as team manager, removing Sanjay Mandal, (Contd on P-7)

By Patrick P. Sawian

The article “Is Khasi Identity Heading Toward a Constitutional Crisis?” by Bhogtorom Mawroh, in The Shillong Times issue dated 23rd May 2026, raises a provocative and intel- lectually stimulating concern regarding the future of Khasi identity, customary law and constitutional protections in Me- ghalaya. Using the succession dispute in Hima Sohra and the PIL filed by Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai against matrilineal lineage laws as reference points, the article argues that attempts to reinterpret or dilute Khasi customary systems may eventu- ally trigger a constitutional crisis with far-reaching implications for Scheduled Tribe status, Sixth Schedule autonomy, and even land ownership patterns in Meghalaya. At one level, the article deserves credit for drawing attention to a deeply important issue often ignored in mainstream Indian constitu- tional discussions: the fragile re- lationship between tribal identity and customary continuity. The article correctly observes that many constitutional protections granted to tribal communities in India are historically tied to the preservation of distinctive customary systems, indigenous governance structures, lineage practices and traditional social institutions. In that sense, the anxiety surrounding the weaken- ing of Khasi customary institu- tions is not entirely imaginary.

However, while the article raises legitimate concerns, it also tends at times toward constitu- tional alarmism by implying that social evolution or reinterpreta- tion of customs could inevitably culminate in the collapse of Khasi constitutional protec- tions. The reality is far more complicated.

The strongest argument in the article concerns the gradual erosion of Khasi customary institutions themselves. There is little doubt that Khasi society is undergoing profound trans- formation. Urbanization, migra- tion, global education, private property economics, intermar- riage, nuclear family structures and globalization are steadily re- shaping traditional relationships within the Kur, the authority of the Kñi and the functioning of the Dorbar system. Younger generations increasingly par- ticipate in globalized modernity rather than living entirely within clan-based customary frame- works. This cultural drift is real and observable, irrespective of which political party governs India or Meghalaya.

The article is therefore cor- rect in arguing that if traditional institutions weaken excessively, the philosophical basis of tribal autonomy may also weaken over time. Courts in India have occasionally examined the con- tinuity of customary practices while dealing with tribal iden- tity disputes. The Supreme Court judgment discussed in the article, especially its em- phasis on retaining essential tribal characteristics and social organization, understandably alarms communities that fear cultural assimilation. Yet the article arguably stretches this concern too far when it suggests that patriliny, reinterpretation of succession, or social moderniza- tion could realistically lead to widespread loss of Scheduled Tribe status in the foreseeable future. India already recognizes many tribal communities that have undergone enormous social transformation through Christi- anity, capitalism, urbanization, electoral politics and modern education while still retaining ST recognition. Tribal iden- tity under Indian constitutional practice has never depended exclusively on preserving one isolated customary feature in a frozen historical form.

If constitutional identity re- quired absolute preservation of pre-modern customs, many tribal communities across India would already have lost their status decades ago. Khasi society itself has changed dramatically under colonial administration, mis- sionary influence, and modern state structures. Yet Khasi iden- tity survives robustly. The issue therefore is not whether Khasi society changes, but whether it changes so radically that it becomes entirely indistinguish- able from dominant non-tribal social systems. That is a much higher threshold than the article sometimes implies.

The article also places sub- stantial emphasis on the PIL challenging matrilineal lineage laws. Here again, the deeper is- sue may not simply be “tradition versus anti-tradition,” but rather competing interpretations of how Khasi society should mod- ernize. Reformist Khasi groups argue that customary systems contain ambiguities and inequi- ties requiring reinterpretation in contemporary contexts. Their critics see such reforms as dan- gerous openings through which constitutional protections may gradually unravel. The conflict is therefore not merely between Delhi and Khasi tradition, but also between competing Khasi visions of modernity itself.

Another important dimen- sion raised indirectly by the article is the fear of centraliza- tion within the Indian Union. Although there is no publicly proven conspiracy to dismantle Khasi institutions, indigenous anxieties do not emerge in a vacuum. Across India, especial- ly under stronger centralized political currents, there has been increasing emphasis on legal uniformity, national integration, centralized governance, and harmonization of exceptional regional arrangements.

From this perspective, insti- tutions such as Sixth Schedule councils, customary inheritance systems, and tribe-specific gov- ernance structures may appear ideologically awkward within a highly centralized nation-state model. This partly explains why many indigenous communities become suspicious whenever customary succession systems are litigated or autonomous institutions are weakened po- litically. History offers many examples where negotiated autonomies were gradually diluted through administrative integration rather than outright abolition. Native American treaty systems in the United States, the dismantling of clan authority in the Scottish High- lands, the erosion of princely autonomy in post-independence India, and the gradual dilution of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir all demonstrate how central states often expand au- thority incrementally over long periods. Centralization rarely announces itself dramatically.

It typically advances through legal reinterpretation, admin- istrative standardization, eco- nomic integration, educational homogenization, weakening of traditional elites, and genera- tional cultural change.

Seen in that global historical context, the anxieties put out in the article are neither irrational nor unique.

At the same time, however, indigenous fear can itself be- come politically absolutist. One danger in debates surrounding identity is the temptation to treat all reform as existential be- trayal. Societies cannot remain permanently frozen in the exact form they existed centuries ago. Customary systems his- torically evolved continuously even before colonialism and constitutionalism emerged. The challenge is therefore not whether Khasi society modern- izes, but whether modernization can occur without severing the deeper cultural logic that sustains Khasi identity.

The more immediate and realistic risks facing Khasi society are probably not sud- den constitutional extinction, but slower structural tensions involving commercialization of ancestral property, weakening clan accountability, politiciza- tion of identity, generational fragmentation, and increasing conflict between constitutional modernity and customary law. These are serious concerns, but they differ from apocalyptic scenarios predicting imminent collapse of Sixth Schedule protections or sudden mass removal of ST status.

The article succeeds best not as a literal constitutional prediction, but as a warning against civilizational compla- cency. Its silver lining is that it serves as a stark reminder to Khasi society that customary systems cannot survive merely through slogans or emotional attachment. Institutions survive only when communities con- tinue practicing, adapting, and legitimizing them meaningfully across generations.

The deeper question con- fronting Khasi society today is therefore neither simple traditionalism nor blind mod- ernization. It is whether Khasi identity can evolve intelligently without dissolving the custom- ary foundations that historically justified its constitutional dis- tinctiveness within the Indian Union; and perhaps that, more than succession disputes or litigation over lineage alone, is the real constitutional question looming quietly over Megha- laya’s future.

AFTER keeping the world on tenterhooks for nearly three months, signals have emerged simultaneously from both the US and Iran that an end to the war is in sight. Both sides hint that negotiations to end the war have reached the decisive last phase and the Strait of Hormuz could soon see a full normalisation of shipping traffic. Clearly, both sides are tired — and have learnt bitter lessons. Worse, the world was put through immense sufferings, hurting national economies and putting peoples’ lives in jeopardy. The US, which initiated the war in February this year with the avowed aim of forcing an end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, but also with the intention of uprooting the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in Tehran, has burnt its fingers. A resolute Iranian leadership caused major disruptions to the global energy supplies by blocking the Strait — through which a fifth of the world’s energy supplies across continents took place. The Strait became Iran’s lethal bargaining chip to browbeat Uncle Sam.

President Donald Trump states on his twitter handle – Truth Social that chances of an end to the war are “50-50” while American negotiators say Iran would give up its enrichment programme. Iran has not confirmed this, but expressed optimism on Sunday that “the number of ships passing through the Strait a day could soon return to pre-war levels,” signalling the prospects of normalcy. Before the war started, up to 140 ships transited the Strait a day carrying crude, LPG, fertilizers etc. After a complete halt, Iran allowed ships to selectively pass through there after imposing hefty tariffs, but later imposed a complete blockade on vessels carrying cargo to and from the West. Thus, Iran partly offset the economic loss it suffered in the war. But, the retaliatory US blockade on Iranian ports meant the Islamic nation faced difficulty in selling its oil. All these curbs could likely end in a week or two if the present negotiations — also involving Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir and some Gulf states including Israel fructify.

Significantly, having effected an abrupt ceasefire weeks ago, the US president is still facing pressure from home as well as from America’s Gulf allies and from public opinion around the world to halt the war once and for all. His latest response — that he has two options: hitting them “harder than ever” or “sign[ing] a deal that’s good” — meant the President is still keeping his options open. The problem, however, is that he has limited options. He has already used the full might of the US to bring Iran to its heel. Iran demonstrated its ability to retaliate and refused to both bend and crawl. Trump’s hidden agenda to get Iran’s oil for a song by installing a puppet regime there and thus make up for the huge economic losses his country suffered in this war, has failed. Clearly, he failed the Americans by what would now look like a misadventure. In a democracy, rulers cannot escape public retribution from their acts of omissions and commissions. The dictators in Iran need entertain no such worries.