Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 18
The Nagaland state government has appealed the Eastern Nagaland Peoples Organisation (ENPO) to participate in the upcoming Hornbill Festival, 2023.
According to a DIPR report, the appeal was made through the Minister for Tourism & Higher Education, Temjen Imna Along Longkumer at a meeting with the ENPO in Dimapur on November 18.
The DIPR said that the meeting was held at the Tourist Lodge where 7 members of the ENPO led by its President R Tsapikiu Sangtam attended. Minister Along was accompanied by the Advisor for Art and Culture, K Konngam Konyak.
“The issue was extensively deliberated and the Government earnestly appealed to them to participate in the Hornbill Festival 2023,” the brief report from the DIPR stated.
Earlier this month, on November 9, the ENPO had publicly announced that it will not take part in the upcoming Hornbill Festival, scheduled to begin on December 1. If the ENPO sticks to the decision, it would be the second consecutive year that the state’s premier festival would be held without the ENPO’s 7 affiliate tribes. In 2021, the festival was called off midway after the December 4, Oting killings.
The refusal to participate traces back to the demand for a separate state for the Eastern Nagaland bloc, the negotiations for which remains in a stalemate. The Union government has proposed a scaled down version called a ‘Frontier Naga Territory’ vested with executive and financial autonomy.
The November 18 meeting was preceded by a meeting between the ENPO and Eastern Nagaland Legislators’ Union (ENLU) in Chümoukedima on November 17. However, the negotiations did not reach a consensus.
The state government is scheduled to hold another meeting in this regard on December 21 jointly with the ENPO, CNTC and TUN.
