Former Chief Minister of Nagaland and present Chairman of DAN Coordination Committee TR Zeliang said the ongoing blockade in Manipur is the handiwork of the Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and that to lift it or to let it continue depends on him alone.
Addressing an election rally this morning at Senapati, Zeliang said when BJP leaders Ram Madhav and Himanta Sarma Biswa paid a brief courtesy call on the new Chief Minister of Nagaland yesterday, they asked in passing whether the Chief Minister and himself could speak to the UNC to lift the blockade but that he replied “the blockade was Ibobi’s creation and it depends on him whether it could be lifted or whether it would continue. Let us see the outcome of the Tripartite talks with the UNC and the Government of India.”
“He had created new districts without consulting the stakeholders knowing fully well this would result in protests and blockades. But expecting the Valley people to back him up and vote for his party, he had announced the creation of these new districts. It now depends on him whether to revoke the Government decision or to let it stand,” Zeliang said.
“Dividing the people on communal lines and appealing to a section of the people for political gains is not advisable,” Zeliang said.
Lamenting that the Naga political issue is yet to be resolved even after a lapse of almost 20 years after ceasefires were signed, Zeliang said there are “some political elements who do not want the problem to be solved because they think that once the Naga problem is solved, their political careers would come to an end.”
He said that problems that are being resolved through peaceful dialogue should not be opposed by anyone and hoped that “sooner than later the Naga political problem shall be solved amicably without hurting the sentiments and emotions of any other communities.”
Recalling how he had written to NSCK (K) supremo Khaplang when he was the Chief Minister to re-enter into Ceasefire Agreement with the Government of India as well as with the Government of Myanmar, he expressed his sincere wish that a peaceful atmosphere would be created with Ceasefire agreements so that “Nagas living in both the countries can have dialogue and solve the political problem once and for all.”
Zeliang asserted that the NPF supports solution of the Naga political problem through peaceful dialogue and not through armed conflict.
(Issued by Media Cell, Chief Minister’s Office, Nagaland)
