On Saturday, the voice of opposition against claimed forced vaccination by the State Government reached a feverish level, with few residents of the State joining the nationwide demonstration of the Awaken Indian Movement (AIM) against obligatory vaccination and lockdown.

Because they were not permitted to march through the city streets, the demonstrators held a rally in the Mothphran parking lot. Banshai Marbaniang, a member of the AIM team, stated that they had to take to the streets since the State government was attempting to take away their fundamental rights by mandating vaccination, obligatory masking, and testing, and discriminating based on vaccine status.

He stated that if individuals do not vaccinate, they are harassed by being compelled to test every ten days and that posting vaccination status is another method of discriminating against those who have not vaccinated.

He said that several staff was told to get vaccinated or face being fired.

Marbaniang questioned how daily wage earners and others would survive if they were told to stay at home in the absence of any assistance from the State Government.

He stated that while health experts across the world are emphasizing the importance of masking to combat the epidemic, he is not a medical expert and that individuals should not be harassed under the guise of imposing masks.

After being refused permission to march through the city streets as planned, he stated that they will have a similar demonstration in the coming days to make their message.

Meanwhile, Adelbert Nongrum, MLA for North Shillong, came out in favour of the campaign, saying, “I came to support the cause because I, too, think that vaccination should not be imposed.”

He emphasized that freedom of speech and expression should be protected, and that forced vaccination should be avoided since it has a psychological impact on people who do not want it.

Vaccination hesitancy has been a major issue for the state government in the fight against COVID, and while the state government intends to vaccinate 80 percent of its people, the numbers do not appear encouraging.