Principal Correspondent
KOHIMA, MARCH 27
NAGALAND Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president SI Jamir today said that Naga people are ready to repose their faith on the Congress party if they can grasp Rahul Gandhi’s sincerity on the issues faced by the state and its people.
Welcoming AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi to Nagaland for the Lok Sabha election campaign, Jamir said that, elections in Nagaland are focused mainly on the issue of finding settlement to the protracted Indo-Naga political dialogue which has stretched into 17 years.Taking advantage of Rahul’s august visit, Jamir said “with your ascendancy in the party that has given way to new thinking and possibilities, we request to kindly commit your sincerity before the people of Nagaland in finding an early political settlement so as to bring about a logical conclusion to the ongoing political peace talks”.
He said Nagas are indebted to your late great grandfather and former Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for carving our Nagaland as the 16th state of the Indian Union against all political odds in 1963, your late grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for nurturing the state during its formative years while holding talks with the Naga undergrounds at the highest political level and your late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for once again recognizing the need for a political solution and making a commitment on the vexed Naga issue in 1991 before his untimely death at the cruel hands of terrorism.
“His (Rajiv Gandhi) commitment however went on to bear fruit as the government of India managed to bring the Naga underground groups to the negotiating table without any preconditions and signed a ceasefire agreement in 1997 and has not entered the 17th year,” he said.
“With an illustrious family legacy of four generations, the people of Nagaland have a great hope in your leadership that promises better days ahead and are ready to repose their faith on the Congress party if they can grasp your sincerity on the issues faced by the state and its people. We therefore request you not to disappoint us when we need you the most”.
Meanwhile, former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader, Kewekhape Therieh today said that Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has betrayed the Naga people by surrendering himself to the NDA.
Speaking at the election campaign of INC candidate KV Pusa in Kohima today, K. Therieh, who had been a close associate of Rio till the time he resigned from NPF and rejoined Congress in the state, confessed before the public saying “I have made the greatest mistake in my life by making Rio the Chief Minister of Nagaland”.
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Therieh along with Rio, who were both holding ministerial portfolios in the then Congress government in the state, had resigned in 2002 and revived the cock symbol regional party as Nagaland People’s Front (NPF), now Naga People’s Front.
Therieh said that “Rio has betrayed me and the people of Nagaland by making a major diversion from the common minimum programme of DAN “…to secure negotiated settlement of Indo-Naga political problem”. He alleged that Rio had diverted to merely facilitate and support the ongoing peace process, alienating the party and self from playing effective in defining pragmatic agendas for solution.
He therefore expressed the hope that the Naga people will not commit the same mistake committed by him in the past.
He also alleged that Rio is going to Delhi because he has failed to stand and defend the life and property of Naga people and now surrendered before the BJP-led NDA.
NAGALAND Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president SI Jamir today said that Naga people are ready to repose their faith on the Congress party if they can grasp Rahul Gandhi’s sincerity on the issues faced by the state and its people.
Welcoming AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi to Nagaland for the Lok Sabha election campaign, Jamir said that, elections in Nagaland are focused mainly on the issue of finding settlement to the protracted Indo-Naga political dialogue which has stretched into 17 years.
Taking advantage of Rahul’s august visit, Jamir said “with your ascendancy in the party that has given way to new thinking and possibilities, we request to kindly commit your sincerity before the people of Nagaland in finding an early political settlement so as to bring about a logical conclusion to the ongoing political peace talks”.
He said Nagas are indebted to your late great grandfather and former Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for carving our Nagaland as the 16th state of the Indian Union against all political odds in 1963, your late grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for nurturing the state during its formative years while holding talks with the Naga undergrounds at the highest political level and your late father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for once again recognizing the need for a political solution and making a commitment on the vexed Naga issue in 1991 before his untimely death at the cruel hands of terrorism.
“His (Rajiv Gandhi) commitment however went on to bear fruit as the government of India managed to bring the Naga underground groups to the negotiating table without any preconditions and signed a ceasefire agreement in 1997 and has not entered the 17th year,” he said.
“With an illustrious family legacy of four generations, the people of Nagaland have a great hope in your leadership that promises better days ahead and are ready to repose their faith on the Congress party if they can grasp your sincerity on the issues faced by the state and its people. We therefore request you not to disappoint us when we need you the most”.
Meanwhile, former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader, Kewekhape Therieh today said that Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has betrayed the Naga people by surrendering himself to the NDA.
Speaking at the election campaign of INC candidate KV Pusa in Kohima today, K. Therieh, who had been a close associate of Rio till the time he resigned from NPF and rejoined Congress in the state, confessed before the public saying “I have made the greatest mistake in my life by making Rio the Chief Minister of Nagaland”.
Therieh along with Rio, who were both holding ministerial portfolios in the then Congress government in the state, had resigned in 2002 and revived the cock symbol regional party as Nagaland People’s Front (NPF), now Naga People’s Front.
Therieh said that “Rio has betrayed me and the people of Nagaland by making a major diversion from the common minimum programme of DAN “…to secure negotiated settlement of Indo-Naga political problem”. He alleged that Rio had diverted to merely facilitate and support the ongoing peace process, alienating the party and self from playing effective in defining pragmatic agendas for solution.
He therefore expressed the hope that the Naga people will not commit the same mistake committed by him in the past.
He also alleged that Rio is going to Delhi because he has failed to stand and defend the life and property of Naga people and now surrendered before the BJP-led NDA.
