All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim Dr Ajoy Kumar has alleged that Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio and the BJP are delaying solution in favour of election and towards this, want the help of the NSCN (I-M) to win the election scheduled in 2023.
Dr. Kumar made the claim at a press conference at AICC headquarters New Delhi on Thursday in presence of Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president K Therie and AICC secretary Ranajit Mukherjee.
Dr. Kumar asked, what could be more “anti-national” than using armed groups to win elections? He also accused the BJP of having used similar tactics to win recent election in another North Eastern state.
He recalled that the cease fire in Nagaland has been in effect for the past 25 years and on Au-gust 3, 2015, after signing of the Framework Agreement (FA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared that the Naga issue will be solved soon. However, Dr. Kumar said even after near-ly seven years, there is little evidence to indicate early solution.
He therefore, accused the Prime Minister of “lying to the country for the past seven years on the issue”. Dr. Kumar also claimed that the FA is kept under wraps and demanded to know why the government of India was hiding the details of the FA from the people of Nagaland? He also said despite the government of India’s own appointed Interlocutor for the Naga Peace Talks, RN Ravi having declared that the official negotiations concluded on October 31, 2019, senior central BJP leader in-charge of Nagaland, Nalin Kohli signed an “seat sharing agreement with Rio for election and maintained that solution would be later.”
Referring to Nagaland as a “sensitive” State sharing international borders, Dr. Kumar warned that if BJP wins the Assembly election with the help of armed groups, it would pose a grave danger to the unity and integrity of India but added that BJP was more concerned about winning elections.
On the other hand, Dr. Kumar reaffirmed that Congress had always stood for the good of the country, by citing the case in 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi signed the Assam Accord with the Assam agitation leaders. He said the Congress signed the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985 de-spite realising it would lose election because for the party, nation came first. In contrast, he said for BJP it was about winning elections even at the cost of the nation’s interest.
Dr. Kumar also slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as BJP’s “Election Department”. According to Dr. Kumar, ED has been investigating chief minister Rio for accruing huge assets beyond which were multiple times of what was found in West Bengal against the ruling TMC. However, he said the ED stopped investigating Rio’s assets and was keeping the probe under wraps.
He also hit out at Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, for being busy taking legislators across India on “tours” (referring to the recent political crisis in Maharashtra where Shiv Sena MLAs were camping at a hotel in Guwahati), rather than focussing on resolving the Naga issue as the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).
Dr. Kumar also expressed concern over the rampant taxation by armed groups in Nagaland and reminded about the August 5 public rally in Dimapur, under the aegis of Nagaland People’s Ac-tion Committee (NPAC) which had demanded early solution.
Theire slams PM: Addressing the media, NPCC president K. Therie questioned Prime Minister Modi on why was he continuing to “lie and betray” the aspirations of the people of Nagaland who wanted peace and settlement?
He said the people of Nagaland were expecting some announcement on settlement of the Naga political issue during India’s 75th anniversary of Independence but nothing was said about it.
Therie said Modi, as the Prime Minister of India and also representing the people of India, had lied to the Naga people despite declaring that the Naga political of issue had been resolved after signing of FA.
Therie said he was in Delhi to appeal to the nation that the people deserved an honest Prime Minister.
He also recalled that on his visit to Nagaland in December 2014 Modi, had promised Nagas that he will resolve the Naga issue in 18 months. But nothing was done till date even after Modi declared that the Naga issue had been resolved, he said.
He also pointed out that the then President of India R.N. Kovind during his visit to Nagaland declared that “solution will be very soon”. However, then BJP general secretary (i/c North East) Ram Madhav declared “Election for Solution” in 2018. Likewise, Therie said the BJP had made several promises that the Naga issue will be resolved after elections of various State including Manipur.
Therie alleged that the BJP after winning the elections in Manipur with the support of the insurgent groups, decided to apply the same tactic to win the 2023 elections in Nagaland.
“This is how BJP was delivering its promises to the Naga people”, Therie said. He said all these denote that the Modi government was not serious about any settlement.
Therie reminded that Nagas have struggled for the past nine decades and that the way BJP government was taking the Nagas for a ride was “unacceptable to the people”.
“We are sorry but we cannot compromise our ethnic values for communalism in our soil,” The-rie stated and regretted that BJP was trying to use the Naga issue for electoral benefits.