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DIMAPUR — The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has strongly reacted to ‘a very distressing statement’ made by BJP legislator Imkong L Imchen on April 16 in Kohima, terming it as a desperate attempt to appease his party.
At a press conference in Dimapur on Wednesday, AICC secretary in-charge of Nagaland Ranajit Mukherjee criticised Imchen’s remarks and questioned the latter’s credibility due to his history of switching political parties.
Labelling Imchen as a ‘habitual defector,’ Mukherjee said that the BJP is rewriting history to confuse voters, as it is ‘losing ground’ in Nagaland. By making such a desperate statement, “he proves in fact that the candidate is a proxy BJP candidate and not an NDPP candidate,” he added.
The AICC secretary went on to state that party would rather, “invite Imchen to talk about what is happening in Manipur since he is a leader and ask him why the Prime Minister has not visited Manipur yet.”
Former Member of Parliament, C Apok Jamir also commented on his former colleague’s comments, stating that it was ‘unbecoming,’ considering his past role as the district congress committee president of Mokokchung.
While Imchen had, among others, questioned the Congress’ silence over the atrocities committed against the Naga people in the 1950s and subsequent decades, Jamir said that Imchen had never raised the issue during his tenure as DCC president.
“It was during the Congress time that the political agreement came about between the Naga Peoples’ Convention and the Government of India and that is how statehood came about. What we are enjoying today and what Imkong L Imchen is enjoying today is due to the political agreement that has come about and the statehood that we have achieved,” he added.
Stating that there is a ‘disturbing’ situation arising in the country at present, Jamir said that every right-thinking citizen should make a conscious decision to safeguard the interest of the people, and the democratic and secular values of the constitution.
He also raised concerns about potential electoral malpractices. To a certain extent, opposition parties have discussed having free and fair elections, but there are also plans to have council members cast votes on behalf of absent voters, he alleged.
“That is something which the Election Commission should take a serious note of,” he said.
Meanwhile, AICC in-charge of Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, and Nagaland, Girish Chodankar, echoed concerns regarding proxy voting and booth capturing.
“On behalf of the people of Nagaland we have given in writing to the CEO and they have assured us that 50% of the booths webcasting will be done and wherever webcasting is not done there will be physical recording,” he said, urging citizens to remain vigilant to prevent any attempts at electoral fraud.