Congress to fight for state’s lone Lok Sabha seat

Dimapur, Jan. 8 (EMN): The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has revealed in a statement released on Tuesday that the party will field its candidate in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. The Congress party said that it has decided to fight for the state’s lone Lok Sabha seat “to express that the people of Nagaland stand for freedom of religion” and endeavour to “solve the political problem through peaceful and constitutional means.” “Hindutva is the root cause of the noble political movement of Nagas. For this reason, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru provided Art.371 (A) safeguarding the religion, culture and social practices of Nagaland,” read the statement issued by NPCC president K. Therie. NPCC acknowledged the difficulties and realities of negotiation but said negotiating for 21 years without solution is unreasonable. Claining that law makers from regional parties hardly get time to express their grievances in the parliament, it said the ‘Naga political issue needs a bigger platform through a big political party.’ The party said that the BJP enjoys complete majority in the parliament but has miserably failed in addressing the Naga issue. It said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced at Dubai after signing the Framework Agreement on August 3, 2015 that the Naga problem had been solved but no solution has been brought about till date. “We call upon the electorate to give a chance to Congress to participate in the Congress and UPA parliamentary committees and also in Parliament. We guarantee freedom of religion and we assure to sort out the political issue,” concluded NPCC.