DIMAPUR, JUL 29 (NPN): The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has expressed “unpleasant surprise” over a recent press statement by deputy chief minister Y. Patton who informed that he along with chief minister Neiphiu Rio met with union home minister Amit Shah, secretaries and officials of the home ministry at Delhi regarding Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA).
Citing Patton’s statement, NTC through its president Pankathung Lotha and general secretary Onnen Walling said the state government had taken up its proposal to accord legislative power for the proposed FNTA with the government of India. NTC said the central government had assured to take up the matter of giving legislative power to FNTA within “two weeks.”
NTC said it was not competent to interpret the constitutional legality of whether the state government has the authority to grant legislative powers to Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) or to the proposed FNTA, which covers six districts of Eastern Nagaland.
It said that if the power to grant legislative authority rested with the Centre, it questioned the need for the state government to make such a recommendation instead of leaving the matter to the Government of India to decide on its legality and constitutionality.
NTC questioned the need for the state government to make such a recommendation if the matter of granting legislative powers rested with the Centre. It said the issue should have been left to the Government of India to decide on its legality and constitutionality.
According to NTC, the recommendation has created the impression that the state Cabinet had crossed its limits (“Lakshman Rekha”) by recommending sweeping legislative powers for the proposed FNTA, which it claimed are vested only in a full-fledged state.
NTC said the implication of the recommendation was that Nagaland would be reduced to 11 districts with 40 MLAs, while the six eastern districts with 20 MLAs would effectively become another “mini state” carved out of Nagaland. It said this would result in Nagas being divided into Burma Nagas, FNTA Nagas and Nagaland Nagas, apart from those in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Questioning whether Nagas were to be fragmented and dismembered into so many Naga blocks or divisions, NTC described the development as “nothing short of political stupidity” on the part of the opposition-less BJP-NPF government. It also questioned the relevance of Naga integration and the Naga political solution.
NTC said before dwelling into the subject matter, it was “hopelessly confused and mesmerised” by the current political developments in Nagaland and questioned whether it should accept the theory, allegedly floated by “a certain Naga Political Group”, of grouping Nagas into FNTA, Tenyimi plus, South Nagas and Central Nagaland Tribes. It said the people of Nagaland wanted to know under what circumstances or political compulsions the state Cabinet had recommended granting legislative powers to the proposed FNTA.
NTC said this was what it wanted to know at the earliest, adding that the issue concerned all the tribes of Nagaland, including ENPO.
It questioned why the present state government had created such a political situation with a two-week timeframe. In the interest of the welfare of all Naga tribes, NTC urged the state government to clarify its stand for public information and awareness.
The council cautioned that the signatories to the Cabinet recommendation would be solely responsible for the consequences of what it termed an “unsavoury political development.”
Thursday, July 30, 2026