Ground Zero
Malchapara did not have a reason since July 2021 to hold the melkhol nok, a kangaroo court that settles local disputes. This Garo tribal village had been too glued to a dispute far removed from its jurisdiction — along the Assam-Meghalaya border 7 km away — to handle petty issues all these months.
The opportunity to hold court came a week before Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Kongkal Sangma met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi to seal a “historic” boundary deal. It was not to sort out any domestic or social issue, but to extract an apology from 65-year-old Starson Marak for “selling his soul” to Assam.
