In response to a call for debate on election manifestos by the BJP to Congress on February 16, Clean Election Movement (CEM) under the aegis of Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) said that it would like to facilitate in organizing the public debate by inviting both the parties to take part in a Common Platform.
To increase voters’ knowledge, political accountability and wider democratic participation of common public, CEM convener Dr Villo Naleo requested both BJP and Congress to attend the debate at Dimapur on February 23 at 1 p.m.
Naleo said that further details for the common platform would be notified at the earliest after hearing from the two political parties. While maintaining that CEM stood for clean, free, fair and informed choices, Naleo said that the people in Nagaland awaited this occasion with great anticipation.
Meanwhile, Naleo said CEM appreciated Congress’s position that any debate on the manifesto would be “pointless, meaningless and a waste of time” unless there was a clarification by BJP on the three issues – i) its 2018 slogan “Election for Solution”; ii) whether it was ready to give a categorical assurance to the people of Nagaland that BJP government would not disturb Article 371(A) of the Indian constitution in letter and spirit; iii) and whether it would dissociate from and condemn the statement made by one of RSS front organisations and Assam-based Janajati Dharma-Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (JDSSM) demanding removal of ST status from people who had embraced Christianity.