Jairam Ramesh. (Morung Photo)
Preserving diversity, democracy, Art 371 (A), peace and jobs
Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 9
Unity, protection of Article 371 (A), permanent peace, jobs and preservation of democracy are the Indian National Congress’ 5 polls planks in Nagaland, according to Jairam Ramesh. The General Secretary in-charge of Communications, All India Congress Committee (AICC), who landed in Nagaland on April 8, addressed a press conference at the Congress Bhavan in Dimapur.
“The BJP, the Prime Minister talks of one nation, one election, one nation, one tax. But the BJP’s long term plan is one nation, one language, one religion, one culture. This is the real game plan of the BJP,” he maintained,
By BJP, he implied, all the NDA allies, including the NDPP in Nagaland, which he termed as the BJP’s “washing machine.” Terming the 2024 polls as a battle between unity and uniformity, he said that the BJP wants to impose artificial uniformity against the Congress’ vision of preserving the country’s unity in diversity.
After removing Article 370 from the Constitution, he said that the BJP’s next target is Article 371. He said that Article 371 (A), which has special provisions protecting the culture, religion and languages of Nagaland, is now “under threat.”
After almost 25 years of negotiations, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi made public an agreement with the NSCN (IM). But 9 years since the signing of the Framework Agreement in August 2015, he said, “We don’t know the details.” According to him, there is only confusion despite the PM promising “election for solution” in the State Assembly elections in 2023.
Despite the PM promising to create 2 crore jobs in 2014, he claimed that one young person is dying by suicide every 2 hours because of unemployment. Instead of addressing unemployment, price rise and economic inequality, he said that Modi is talking only about polarising the society.
As for the Congress, he said that it is fighting for the 5 ‘Nyays,’ namely— Jutictice for women, youth, farmers, workers and social justice for all sections.
While claiming that the Congress is the only party preserving democracy and the country’s democratic institutions, he said the 2024 elections are for the future of democracy in India. “Will democracy survive? We have the Deputy Chief Minister of Nagaland telling village elders to vote on behalf of all villagers.” He added that the Congress will not compromise with the BJP and its intimidations.
He said that the NDPP is a ‘hotchpotch of opportunists’ requiring protection from the government agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and Income Tax. “They (NDPP) think they are election machine, but are washing machine,” he said.
Unclear on Naga issue pledge in manifesto
In the Congress manifesto for the 2024 polls, it has promised to solve the Indo-Naga political issue on the basis of a “preliminary agreement” dating to 2013-14.” The details of the agreement however were not specified in the manifesto giving rise to confusion.
Queried on this, Ramesh said that the Framework Agreement reflects the years of negotiations between the Government of India and NSCN (IM) beginning with the Narasimha Rao regime, followed up by HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh.
According to him, it resulted in ideas that were incorporated in 2013 and which was further incorporated into the Framework Agreement. He however was not clear on what was incorporated in 2013. He said that the PM Modi is in a position to disclose all the discussions that have taken place since 1997. He added that it is up to the PM to make public how they arrived at the Framework Agreement, including what had happened in 2013-14.
Electoral Bonds
The Congress has criticised the Electoral Bonds Scheme, after it was nullified by the Supreme Court, despite being among the top beneficiaries. Prodded on the rather hypocritical stance, Ramesh maintained that the Congress got it from people, “who have been giving to the Congress for the last 70 years,” and not in exchange for awarding contracts or through the threat of using the ED, CBI and IT like the ruling BJP government.
He added that the Congress had pledged in its 2019 manifesto to abolish the Electoral Bonds Scheme.
