A file Photo of NPF Central HQ Kohima (Photo Courtesy: npfweb.org)
Kohima, February 12 (MExN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has urged the NDPP led PDA Government that if it wished to streamline the ILP regulations and include Dimapur within the ambit of the same, the Government should not hesitate to table the proposed Bill and pass it in the upcoming Assembly Session “as no one is stopping them from doing that.”
However, contrary to it, the PDA Government was trying to confuse the Naga people by underscoring that under any circumstances, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is passed, the Nagas were protected under ILP and Article 371 A and upholding it in the two Cabinet decisions of June 5, 2018 and January 7.
In a press communique issued by Press Bureau, NPF, Central Headquarter, it alleged that the PDA Government was of the view that Nagas could take shelter under Article 371A and BEFR 1873, “but these provisions cannot stop a person from obtaining Indian Citizenship anywhere in India,” it reiterated.
The NPF further said that during the consultative meeting at Chümoukedima on January 31, the Chief Minister accused the NPF DAN Government of being silent when the Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha during 2016. The NPF reminded the PDA government that the said Bill was proposed in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016 and referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on “August 12, 2016 when present Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio was the Lok Sabha MP representing Nagaland from May 2014 to February 2018.”
“What cannot be denied is the fact that Neiphiu Rio himself was the lone Lok Sabha MP belonging to the NPF Party at that point of time” and shifting the blame to the NPF Party today showed his ignorance on what was going on in the Parliament during his tenure, the release contended.
As the MP representing Nagaland, the opposition party maintained that it was his bounden duty to have consulted the State Government and taken into confidence the voice of the Naga people as the said Bill was referred to the JPC which took over a year.
Rio however, failed to do this, the release said, as he was hardly in Parliament and was “busy master-minding crisis, one after another, to topple the then NPF led DAN Government in the state.”
The PDA Government should respect the intellect of the Nagas and desist itself from misguiding the Nagas any further, NPF reiterated.
