NPF party kicks off election campaign in Manipur
DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 27 (MExN): Nagaland Chief Minister Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu said Meiteis and the Hill Tribes of Manipur have been maintaining good neighbourly relations since time immemorial and will continue to be neighbours for all times to come.
Media cell, CMO in a press statement said the Chief Minister addressed an election rally at Senapati on Monday morning.
The Chief Minister said Meiteis and the Hill Tribes of Manipur have no other homeland except the ones they presently occupy and that they have no option but to remain neighbours for generations to come.
“As long as this planet exists, we shall remain neighbours and so we should learn how to live in peace and harmony as good neighbours,” he said. “Meiteis are more advanced people in all spheres of life and we expect them to play the role of the elder brother by initiating measures to ensure continuity of living together as good neighbours.”
Dr Shürhozelie also criticized the present Chief Minister Ibobi Singh for raking up communal tensions in the State “so that the Valley people back him during elections.”
He called upon the Meitei people not to fall prey to Ibobi’s designs and called upon “scholars and intellectuals to come out and speak the truth. If they speak the truth peace and harmony will come to the land.”
Elaborating on the aims and objectives of the Naga People’s Front, the Chief Minister, who is also the president of the NPF, said the primary aim of the party is to bring the Hill Tribes together by bringing them together to a single platform.
“This party is for the Hill tribes and not only for the Nagas and we hope that in due course of time, Meiteis too would join the NPF,” he said and expressed happiness that some Meiteis are members of the party in Kangpokpi area.
On Naga political issue, the Chief Minister said “any problem that is to be solved peacefully through dialogue should not be construed as going against any community” and assured that his party stands by its motto Fide Non Armis (By Faith, Not by Arms).
Blockade creation of Ibobi: TR
Former Chief Minister of Nagaland and present Chairman of DAN Coordination Committee TR Zeliang said the ongoing blockade in Manipur is the handiwork of the Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and that to lift it or to let it continue depends on him alone.
Addressing an election rally at Senapati, Zeliang said Ibobi had created new districts without consulting the stakeholders knowing fully well this would result in protests and blockades.
“But expecting the Valley people to back him up and vote for his party, he had announced the creation of these new districts. It now depends on him whether to revoke the Government decision or to let it stand,” Zeliang said. The former CM went on to state that dividing the people on communal lines and appealing to a section of the people for political gains “is not advisable.”
Lamenting that the Naga political issue is yet to be resolved even after a lapse of almost 20 years after ceasefires were signed, Zeliang said there are “some political elements who do not want the problem to be solved because they think that once the Naga problem is solved, their political careers would come to an end.”
He said problems that are being resolved through peaceful dialogue should not be opposed by anyone and hoped that “sooner than later the Naga political problem shall be solved amicably without hurting the sentiments and emotions of any other communities.”
Zeliang also asserted that the NPF supports solution of the Naga political problem through peaceful dialogue and not through armed conflict.
Nagaland Minister in-charge of Manipur NPF state unit, Yitachu gave a clarion call to the people of the Hill districts of Manipur to elect NPF candidates in the forthcoming general elections in order to ensure protection of the people of the Hills area of the State.
Delivering a speech at the kick-off campaign of the NPF party at Senapati, Yitachu referred to the constitutional provisions of Article 371 C, which has special provisions for effective functioning of the Hill Area Committee.
He however lamented that the Government of Manipur, under Chief Minister Ibobi Singh “has no intention to implement the provisions contained under Article 371 C, nor does the Central Government have made any attempt to exercise the powers under this Article for the people of the Hills area.”
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