Dimapur, Feb. 24 (EMN): The All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) observer for Nagaland, Praveen Davar, has said that the ‘unholy alliance’ between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) was nothing but an ‘open invitation to instability, chaos, and disorder and added that the people of Nagaland will reject the opportunistic alliance.’
The observer issued a press release to the media on Sat.
Commenting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Nagaland, during which he reportedly expressed confidence in the leadership of former chief minister Neiphiu Rio, who is also the chief ministerial candidate of the NDPP-BJP alliance, Davar said that the people of Nagaland have no faith in their leadership or in Rio’s.
Davar stated that Modi had committed a ‘Himalayan blunder’ by using the word ‘Ashtlakshmi’ for the eight states of Northeast including Sikkim as the people were left wondering on meaning of ‘Ashtlakshmi’ which in Hindi means ‘eight Lakshmis.’ According to him, Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth in Hindu scripture and folklore. He alleged that the prime minister, with no experience about the culture and traditions of the Northeast people, did not realise that using such terminology will not go down well with the masses of Nagaland.
Continuing his vitriolic, Davar said that the prime minister did not speak a word about secularism. he should have at least assured the people that there will be no danger to their faith culture and traditions, the Congress leader observed.
To the accusation of the prime minister about the instability in Nagaland during the past four years, Davar attributed the BJP, which had been part of previous government, as the root cause of instable governments in the previous decade to.
Directing his attack on Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, who had expressed pride that the BJP was ruling in Christian-dominated state of Goa and Muslim-dominated state of J&K, Davar stated that the BJP had no faith in Christian leaders of Goa and had chosen a Hindu only as its chief minister for two successive terms.
The Congress leader added that most of the ministers in Goa were Hindus with an odd Christian holding an unimportant portfolio. He went on to allege that the Parrikar government in Goa was also busy promoting the Hindutva ideology in the coastal state which for centuries has been enjoying a liberal and pluralist culture and is a world-class tourist destination.
While stating that the Congress party was fighting in only 18 seats, Davar was confident of winning over a dozen which he said would be a decisive factor in the formation of a secular government in Nagaland.
“The people will certainly reject the BJP, which is misusing all the money power it has acquired with massive corruption in its central and state governments, to impose Hindi and Hindutva on the state of Nagaland,” Davar added.
