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Imkong Imchen adressing media persons on April 10 at Hotel Saramati in Dimapur.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, April 10: MLA Imkong Imchen ridiculed the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) as Bharatiya Janata Party led Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) because of the majority of BJP cabinet ministers.
Imchen said that the people of Nagaland have given a fractured mandate and formed a ‘fragile’ coalition government with six BJP cabinet ministers, four NDPP, one JD (U) and one independent. The opposition MLA was addressing a press conference on Tuesday April 10 at Hotel Saramati in Dimapur.
‘The motivation of the BJP government at the centre was to install a BJP led govt. in the state so as to relegate the Naga issue to the back burner. The political talk which was going on progressively has been evident that the Naga political issue has become the victim. As of today all political parties and NGOs has remain a mote spectator giving their focus only on the new fragile coalition govt.in Kohima.’
“The Naga public as stakeholders have every right to vindicate our opinion to Government of India and negotiating parties and there is nothing wrong doing that” opined Imchen.
‘The GOI has officially recognised that there is Naga political issue but the wisdom of GOI is not as what we had conceived and the Naga talk has been stopped unofficially’ alleged Imchen. All political parties are equally concern that the Naga talk settlement should arrive at the earliest and it is a ‘uniform opinion’ he maintained.
“It may be recalled that I was the first during the 12th Nagaland Legislative assembly tenure who stated that the election to the 13th NLA be differed in view of the ongoing political dialogue between the NSCN-IM, the six NNPG groups and the GOI so as to arrive at a amicable settlement to the Naga political issue. The 12th NLA had gone to the extent of passing a strong resolution unanimously to differ which was strongly supported and endorsed by the parliamentarians, ex- parliamentarians and submitted the memorandum to the GOI.”
‘However the GOI had a different opinion stating “election for solution”. Immediately I have responded to the stated position to give us the timeline if election is meant for solution, which the GOI could not specify the timeline. For me election to the NLA is always secondary to the Naga issue and the NLA is only a routine matter’ claimed the legislator.
In a press statement handed out to media persons, Imchen stated: “no doubt the GOI interlocutor RN Ravi has put in his utmost efforts to iron out the various divergent opinions of the Naga negotiating groups, which is appreciated. But he is also only an instrument in the hands of the GOI and therefore has his own limits”.
The opposition leader also alleged that the atrocities committed against Christians in India have been increasing alarmingly when the Christians constitute only 2% of the population. “Hindu was accommodative religion in the world but today their action is talking differently”, he said.
“In our state we have been protecting other religions and I have been involved in construction of various religious worship places and I will continue to do so. I have never taken religion as a threat”, insisted Imchen and alleged ‘India has become an intolerant state’.
Imchen also pointed out that the state education system is ‘wrongly oriented’. This he remarked in line of the unemployment problem faced by the Naga youths. “Nowhere in the constitution have we adopted that every Naga youths should be provided with government job. The youths know only of govt. job and the state govt. has its own share of blame but that does not mean the govt. has to provide only govt. job,” Imchen noted.
