NPCC lambasts NPF over support for NDA candidate

Dimapur, June 22 (EMN): A day after the NPF led DAN their support for the NDA candidatate in the forthcoming Presidential election, the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee in the state has criticised the move as a open declaration of the NPF party of being full-fledged proxy party for BJP-RSS in Nagaland and that the regional identity of the NPF has been given a final burial. A press statement from the media cell of the state committee of the Indian National Congress stated that "It is very unfortunate that the NPF has hurriedly decided to support the candidature of BJP-RSS candidate for the Presidential election. The regional identity of the NPF has been given a final burial and it is now the full fledged proxy party for BJP-RSS in Nagaland. Our belief, culture and way of life have been greatly compromised in the name of garnering benefits of development and good governance which is still a farfetched dream. The NPF- BJP alliance is without any principles but is based solely on petty benefits. Despite BJP calling NPF 200% corrupt and NPF calling BJP anti Christian party, yet they continue to sail together in a rotten boat." The statement further read that the coming Presidential election "clearly defines which side of the divide a political party stands on two competing ideas of India. The first is the one bequeathed to us by our founding fathers and framers of our Constitution which led to the establishment of a free India based on liberal democracy, equality of all faiths and pluralism. This established idea of India is being challenged by the BJP government with, as the Prime Minister Modi himself called, 'New India'. This New India is nothing but another term for Hindutva. The core principle of the Hindutva ideology is 'one nation, one race, one culture' which translates into a Hindu Rashtra, an idea of India that the RSS had been working even before Independence." It further stated that every election is "battlefield for these two competing ideas of India". It therefore lambasted the decision of the NPF party that under the leadership of Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu that party "Has readily embraced the new idea of India which has nothing to offer our people except infringing on our rights and curtailing our liberties with each passing day."