DIMAPUR, JULY 29 (MExN): The Working Committee (WC), NNPGs today termed the recent joint statement by the NDPP and the BJP declaring 40-20 seat sharing formula for the 2023 elections as a “slap on the Nagas.”
A press release from the media cell, WC NNPGs said that the statement came ten days after the resolutions adopted by fifty nine legislators of the NLA appealing to the political leadership of India to announce and sign an inclusive, honorable Indo-Naga political agreement with the Naga negotiators, as “per official conclusion of negotiation declared on October 31, 2019.”
It stated that all Naga stakeholders had “appreciated the wisdom of the elected representatives of Nagaland for openly declaring and informing the Naga people and the Government of India (GoI) that they are prepared to facilitate and pave the way for a transitional arrangement.”
However, the WC NNPGs said that the July 26 July, 2022 statement appended by Nagaland BJP in-charge Nalin Kohli and NDPP General Secretary Abu Metha “wholly betrayed the integrity of all sixty legislators and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) partners who, ten days earlier, had appealed to the Prime Minister of India to ink an inclusive, honorable Indo-Naga political agreement.”
It said that the NDPP General Secretary owes an explanation to the Naga people as to “why, at this hour, he desires elections more than Indo-Naga political solution.” “What political, historical, social and moral authority has he to attempt a pre-emptive strike on a possible Indo-Naga political solution?” it questioned.
The WC NNPGs also accused him of attempting to “redirect, channelize political parties, common people's energy and that of all sixty legislators, to strategizing electoral politics.” “Is this not an anti-solution politics?” it posed.
While stating that Nalin Kohli is a “typical Indian loudmouth doing his job is a different matter,” the WC NNPGs questioned why the NDPP General Secretary did not take the resolutions of the sixty legislators to New Delhi and “demand the GoI to respect the expressed will and desire of the legislators and that of entire populace.” It stated that the NDPP General Secretary has “failed to measure the overwhelming desire and demand of Naga people for political solution.”
It meanwhile said that from the 1929 submission of Naga memorandum to the British Statutory Commission to the present, “Naga political struggle has had many traitors and saboteurs.” “Anti-Naga deeds or documents are recorded and preserved. This is a crucial period in Naga history,” it added.
The WC NNPGs said that it has negotiated with the GoI and completed the same with “complete transparency and in partnership with Naga tribes, hereditary institutions, the church and apex civil societies.” The open, direct involvement and contribution of Naga tribal bodies and intellectual groups at various stages of WC NNPGs’ political negotiation with GoI is unprecedented in Naga history, it claimed.
Stating that the NNPGs talk was “decidedly a people's negotiation,” it said that “those who put personal ambition before Naga people's political aspiration will have to understand the gravity of their actions.”
