EMN/IANS
DIMAPUR, February 19
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday accused the NDA government of keeping the nation in the dark on the contents, nature and status of the peace dialogue with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak Muivah (NSCN-IM) faction.
This comment of the AICC president came when the Parliamentary Working Committee (PWC) of the Joint Legislator’s Forum of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly of Naga political issue met AICC president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Friday.
Meanwhile, the CMO in a press statement said that they got the assurance of the main Opposition Congress leader and INC President Sonia Gandhi of her party’s support for the Naga peace accord “if the contents of the agreement were in the interest of the Nagas, Northeast and the nation.”
“We are not privy to the contents of the Naga peace accord and we cannot give a blank cheque of support as of now”, she told the PWC delegation according to the CMO statement. “But when the Government reveals the contents for discussion in the Parliament, and if it is in the interest of the Nagas, the Northeast and the nation, my party will surely support it”.
The CMO note then said that Sonia Gandhi ‘confessed’ that the Government at the centre has so far kept the country in the dark about the contents, nature and status of the peace dialogues, but expressed solidarity with the Naga people for the need to find an amicable, honourable and permanent peace in the State and region.
Look Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio was also part of the delegation which met the Congress President on Friday morning.
“The delegation took pains to explain to the Congress chief about the formation of the JLF comprising of leaders of all political parties in the State last year, mainly to project a common front and voice of the representatives of the people of Nagaland on the urgency to solve the protracted Naga political problem,” the CMO note stated.
The delegation explained the necessity to form an Opposition-less Government in the State to give a more cohesive, more concerted voice and views on the Naga political problem.
The merger of the Congress party legislators with the NPF was solely for the purpose of finding an early solution to the Naga political problem and not because of any other exigency, the delegation explained to the Congress chief.
The delegation also pointed out to her that it was her party’s Government at the Centre in 1992 which recognized the Naga problem as a national problem which requires a political solution, and not a military solution which the country think-tank seemed to have been of the opinion all these violent decades.
Sonia Gandhi gave the delegation a patient hearing and assured her party’s support in the Parliament as and when any Bill comes up for discussion “if it was in the interest of the Nagas, the Northeast and the nation.”
“The up-beat delegates left Delhi this afternoon and are now camping in Kolkata where they are scheduled to meet top leaders of the All India Trinamool Congress on Saturday,” said the CMO statement.
