DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 30 (MExN): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) today said that the Central Government’s decision to extend the Disturbed Area Act for another 6 months in Nagaland is “nothing but the abject failure of the NDPP, BJP and NPF coalition to convince the Government of India, that, post Oting massacre, it is capable of handling law and order situation in the state, with or without AFSPA.”
A press release from the RPP said that it took the CM of a neighbouring state, Conrad Sangma, to point out the fact that the role of a state government is very crucial in the lifting of AFSPA – citing the example of Meghalaya. “Conrad’s press conference in Dimapur on December 28 was a severe indictment of the UDA coalition, the underlying salvo being that as far as upholding law and order is concerned the writ of the coalition government does not exist,” it added.
It questioned whether the UDA coalition raised objection to the extension of the DAA. “Were any written assurances made to the MHA guaranteeing that since law and order is a state subject it would uphold such?” the RPP posed.
It said that the Naga public has been demanding that the State Government “control all the illegal activities being committed by the various Naga factions.” “But for too long our state leaders purposefully kept looking the other way, instead blaming the unresolved Naga political issue for all the ills in the state,” the RPP said.
“Since the successive State Governments abdicated on their responsibility to govern and uphold the rule of law, it gave the GoI the necessary excuse to impose AFSPA in the state despite the continued protestations of the Naga CSOs.
Something had to give in, and very unfortunately the Oting massacre happened,” it maintained.
The RPP went on to say that “our politicians have blood on their hands,” adding that the UDA coalition has “lost the moral right to rule.”
