Rising People’s Party (RPP) has appealed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to impose President’s Rule in Nagaland. In a memorandum to Prime Minister, RPP president Joel Naga and vice-president Vitho Zao cited financial crisis and constitutional impasse arising out of ENPO’s demand for separate State and the Naga issue and sought President’s Rule in the State.
RPP claimed that the people of Nagaland at the grassroots fully supported the zero tolerance approach of Modi’s government and hoped that he would take action in the interest of public good. Listing the reasons behind the campaign, RPP alleged that the State was witness to systemic corruption, fiscal mismanagement, fraudulent withdrawals, misgovernance, non-development, misuse of public funds, etc, as pointed out by CAG reports and NITI Aayog indices. (See box)
RPP disclosed that 3,446 people from various parts of the State and beyond took part in the Change.Org online signature campaign for President’s Rule initiated by the party. Further, RPP pointed out an “oppositionless” UDA government was formed to bring about Naga solution, while all members of 13th NLA had expressed their desire to step down for fulfilment of this cherished goal. In this regard, they opined that imposition of President’s Rule would facilitate Naga settlement.
They said people of Eastern Nagaland under the aegis of Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) had expressed the desire to have their own State “Frontier Nagaland”. The ENPO had also resolved that it would abstain from participation in the elections for 20 seats out of 60 Assembly constituencies in the polls scheduled in February 2023.
As such, they mentioned that a constitutional crisis loomed large, which would only accentuate the issue once the Election Commission of India issued notification for the Assembly election. In order to resolve the impasse peacefully under the requisite constitutional provisions, they requested the Prime Minister to declare President’s Rule in the State without delay.