DIMAPUR, June 27 (NNN): A Nagaland minister has earned the wrath of NSCN-IM for having said that Nagaland is an integral part of India.
“It is a matter of discomfort to follow the speech of Merentoshi Jamir, Minister for Youth Resources and Sports who said this on the occasion of NCC Special Integration Camp at Patkai Christian College, Dimapur,” said the NSCN-IM today.
According to the NSCN-IM, Merentoshi had `naively` appealed to the students to spread the message that Nagaland is an integral part of India.
“Forgetting that Nagas have its history and its customary law and therefore we have our own political identity. And it is clearly declared that, during the Indo-Naga Political talks the government of India has also come to acknowledge the history of the Nagas as per Amsterdam Joint Communiqué on July 11, 2002. In a vulnerable position and novice in politics as the youngest minister he should have stayed away from touching sensitive political issue. The occasion and his position as minister must have carried him away but history is a living testimony that Nagaland was never an integral part of India,” the NSCN-IM stated today.