Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) Thursday came down hard on Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and Rajya Sabha MP Khekiho Zhimomi, stating their contradictory statements on the extension of Disturbed Area Act (DAA) indicated a confusion in their understandings of the issue.
The NPCC, in a press statement issued by its media cell, asserted that the CMO’s projection of Nagaland in poor light by saying Nagaland state was the “cause for promulgation of AFSPA in the whole northeast” should be condemned by all Nagas.
It stated that AFSPA was promulgated in different states and extended from time to time under their own given situations and not as stated by the CMO.
Moreover, the opposition maintained that the CMO has also failed to answer as to why the DAA, which covered 20 Kms belt earlier, was extended to the entire state this time.
It also criticized the CMO for not elucidating as to whether the official letter dated June 9, 2011 of special secretary to the government of Nagaland L. Singsit in response to the MHA’s letter dated May 25, 2011 was the cabinet decision. NPCC questioned the CMO as to why it was “afraid to make public” the copy of the decision if the state cabinet had not recommended it as the CMO claimed.
Pointing out that the extension of DAA in the entire state has proved wrong NPF’s claim of Nagaland being “an island of peace,” the NPCC said threat and intimidation, rapes and molestations, rampant extortions, kidnappings for ransom, daylight robberies, killings, sky-rocketing prices etc. were Further NPPC claimed it was obvious that the “immeasurable sufferings of the public” prompted the government of India to exercise its wisdom in extending the DAA to the entire state.
Meanwhile, the NPCC also lashed out at Rajya Sabha MP Khekiho Zhimomi stating he should “get his facts straight”. It asserted that the DAA was first promulgated not in 1995 as stated by the MP, but in 1972 after the attempt on the life of late Dr. Hokishe Sema, the then chief minister of Nagaland near Kohima.
While stating it was unfortunate that a person of his (Khekiho) stature could term the prevailing Nagaland situation as peaceful, the state congress said it may be peaceful to “protected people like him” but it was “total chaos” for the common people.
It further stated that citing artificial peace under the garb of ceasefire as the sole reason by state government to oppose the extension of DAA was not accepted by the government of India as sufficient ground to lift the Act, keeping in view the prevailing situation that affected the day-to-day lives of the common men.
The NPCC said NPF-led DAN government should do its homework first in containing the law and order problem before questioning the wisdom of the UPA government.
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