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Our Correspondent
Kohima, Sep. 17 (EMN): The president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nagaland unit, Temjen Imna Along, has said that Nagas should not blame the Centre for not being able to give a final solution to the Indo-Naga talks because Naga people themselves are divided by ‘fragmented vision and tribalism’.
“It is for us to choose what we want. It is not for India, our government in Delhi, to choose what we want,” Along said at an event to mark the celebration of the 70th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Kohima on Thursday.
According to him, it is for the Nagas to decide how acceptable the Naga political solution can be.
‘Nagas should not give the burden of tribal divides to India but take the burden themselves,’ he said while urging the people to ‘come together, be united, be strong, and give what is acceptable’.
Along, who is also the minister for Higher and Technical Education, and Tribal Affairs, said that inclusiveness is the “most difficult question”.
‘Some want all Nagas to be together; some want only Nagaland to be together; some want to go away from Nagaland to the frontier Nagaland. How inclusive can we be then?’ he questioned.
“If we have fragmented visions, fragmented goals, fragmented attitude, fragmented desires and fragmented wants, let us not blame the government of India, led by the prime minister, to be not able to give us a solution,” Along said.
He said that Nagas have many excuses and reasons but the “consistent attitude” of the prime minister towards giving a solution to the vexed Naga political problem is in itself a “leadership of substance”.
‘Nagas want an honourable solution to the Naga political issue. When PM Modi signed a ‘framework agreement’ with insurgent leaders on August 3, 2015, it was just one of the steps of being honourable,’ he said.
The minister iterated that the stand of BJP Nagaland on the Naga political issue is “very definitive” and is doing its “best to give solution to the Nagas”.
“We talk about honourable, inclusive, and acceptable solution. It is for us to be definitive. It is not for the BJP leadership to be definitive,” he asserted.
Along said that Nagas “have to have acceptability and inclusiveness among themselves”.
Further, he called upon the people to be ‘proud citizens as Nagas’ as well as believe in the constitution of the country.
“We have fought for too long, we have cried too hard, we have suffered for too long, we are deprived too much but it is our choice that has to be voiced out,” he said.
As for “some differences” within BJP party in Nagaland, the party chief maintained that the BJP as an organisation will always take measured steps in the right way.
He called upon the members to ‘forget and forgive and stand in the gap to build a strong BJP Nagaland’. Further, the president challenged the party workers to ‘dedicate themselves to the service of man and learn to forgive each other’.