Dimapur, February 28 (MExN): Reacting to Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC), President, K Therie’s statement wherein he criticized that “NPF’s politics ends at Kohima” while “NPP’s politics also ends at Shillong,” the NPP Nagaland State said that it is appalled at his comments.
Therie has commented that ‘NPF and NPP are stooges of the BJP and therefore, cannot defend or protect the interests of Nagas in the Parliament.’ NPP Nagaland State in a press release said that a statement of this sort coming from a senior leader of the Congress is totally uncalled for.
NPP apprised Therie that NPP was born in Manipur in 1989 contrary to the popular perception that it was born in Meghalaya. It stated that NPP became the first party from the Northeast Region achieving the status of National party in a matter of few years - a feat incomparable to any parties in the country and “it is the only National Party from the North East with a regional spirit.”
It said that “there is no question of our politics being limited to Shillong or for that matter to any one particular state of India. If Therie does not even know the meaning of a National Party, we would suggest that he refer to the Election Commission of India’s official website and educate himself on the list of recognized National Political Parties of India before making such unsound remarks in public.”
On the remark that NPP are ‘stooges of the BJP,’ the party informed Therie and the NPCC that, in a democratic set up any political party can have an alliance with another party, be it in the Centre or in any of the States. It does not make the allies stooges of any political party. NPP as a National Political Party has a separate set of ideologies and framework which cannot be compromised even though we may be in a coalition government with any other political party.
“As far as protecting the interests of the Nagas in the parliament is concerned,” NPP said, it was the first political party which had visited ground zero after the Oting massacre and has been consistently fighting for the rights and justice of the people. “Moreover, if we were incapable of guarding the interests of the Nagas, our NPP leaders, including our MP from Meghalaya, Agatha Sangma and the other leaders of our party would not have raised our voices against the Oting incident,” it added.
Also taking serious note of the statement made by Dr Shürhozelie, President, NPF during election rally at Shajouba in Manipur wherein he mentioned “every Naga was the member of NPF and that anyone who opposed it would be going against the Nagas.”
The NPP reminded Shürhozelie that “ours is a democratic nation where every citizen irrespective of his caste, creed, tribe, religion or community has every right to support any political ideology or party for that matter and no single political party has been given the authority to dictate its policies on the people.” It stated that if such an unhealthy trend, as desired by NPF, is followed, “very soon our political system, especially in Nagaland, will become dictatorial in nature ruled by one party and people will be left without any voice.”
