By Oken Jeet Sandham
KOHIMA, Apr 20 (NEPS): Nagaland Home Minister Imkong L Imchen expressed his happiness on the prevailing peaceful environment in the State.
Talking to NEPS here today, the minister claimed that “Nagaland is the most peaceful State compared to other states.”
“If you look at the pre-2008 situation and compared it with the 2012 situation in the state, I think, peace is there in the state,” he described.
Still not subscribing to the argument of the opposition Congress that Naga underground factional clashes and killings should be taken as “law and order problem,” the straight talking minister elaborated that all these issues were correlated to the political activities of the Naga political issue.
“If the Congress thinks that those issues are law and order problem, let them deal with it according to their philosophy,” he hit back.
They should understand that the Government of India had even “recognized” that the “Naga issue is political.” So definitely it had to be dealt politically and definitely it should not be from the perspective of the law and order angle,” he pointed out.
Imchen also failed to understand the logic of the Opposition Congress that the Naga underground factional issues should be dealt with a “firm hand.”
Asking the Opposition Congress to explain what they meant by a “firm hand,” the Minister wondered whether the so-called a “firm hand” was there in their (Congress) regime.
“We are not going to kill anyone,” Imchen said. “We are also not going to disturb the peace in the state.”
Asked how long the DAN Government would pursue the policy of being a “facilitator” to the ongoing peace talks between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM), Imchen said, “So long it is required, we will remain as a facilitator to the peace talks.”
Elaborating further of their policy of being a facilitator to the ongoing talks, the Minister stated that the peace talks were between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India and they (DAN Government) were not a party to it.
He, however, made it clear that they had trust in the “wisdom” of the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) leaderships that they would bring good solution to the Nagas. “So we are even prepared to pave way in the event of arriving at an honorable solution to the issue,” he said.
Asked his comment on the reported plan of the NSCN (K) to have a bilateral ceasefire with the Myanmar Government, the Minister said there should be peace “everywhere”.
