Dimapur Feb 18 (MExN): In an ostensible reference to Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s statement that ‘integration or unification of Naga-inhabited areas is the route to the solution (to the Indo-Naga issue)’, which appeared in the local print media recently the Federal Government of Nagaland has termed the pronouncement as an “unwise utterance, political cowardice and no vision of Nagaland’s future.”
In a release issued by Gaibon Panmei, Deputy Rali Wali Kilonser of the FGN, the organization stated that such utterances would only play a vital role for more bloodshed among the Naga people. “Some Indianized, educated Nagas who are stating and emphasizing that ‘integration or unification of Naga inhabited areas is the route to the solution of the five-decades old Indo-Naga conflict’ is yet another deceiving word to the Nagas” asserted the FGN adding that such pronouncements will not benefit the Nagas but would lead only to more bloodshed among the people.
“In fact this is a very unwise utterance, political cowardice and no vision of the Nagaland Future” the statement added.
The FGN asserted that those who made such utterances themselves knew from the beginning that the Nagas are not fighting for the integration of Naga-inhabited areas under the Indian union, and therefore, “integration or unification of Naga-inhabited areas can never be the route to the solution of the Indo-Naga conflict.”
The FGN further stated that integration was being demanded only by the NSCN (IM) for its own solution and not for the Nagas.
“The Isak-Muivah group is fighting against their own Nagas for the interest of integration in the past 25 years and it is still unabated, which is an act of treason and all Nagas should condemn them as traitors. If not they will never stop killing the Nagas” the FGN stated while adding that it was time for all the Naga people ‘to rise up and condemn them as traitors in favour of promoting Naga cause’.
