Dimapur, November 29 (MExN): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) today flayed a November 28 office memorandum issued by the State Home Department and termed it as a ‘bullying tactics’ and an insult to sentiments of the people of Eastern Nagaland.
“Why should the state government issue a notification forcing the Village Guards (VGs) from eastern Nagaland to participate in the festival donning traditional attires?” the RPP posed in a press release.
If the ENPO (Eastern Nagaland People's Organization) is not willing to participate in the Hornbill festival, it’s their prerogative and their stand should be respected, it added.
However, it further alleged that the NDPP-BJP Coalition hell-bent on Eastern Nagaland’s participation in the Hornbill festival through backdoor means, pointing out that there are VGs in other area as well.
“It should be noted that there are VGs in Phek district as well but as per the government’s notification, only the VGs from Eastern Nagaland have been summoned for participation,” the party noted, ‘smelling a rat.’
Accordingly, the RPP stated that there is a genuine grievance for which the ENPO is unwilling to participate in the Hornbill festival but the State government is carrying out its bullying tactics.
“It necessarily means that the NDPP-BJP government is bent on creating disunity among the eastern brothers through manipulative means,” it added.
As far as the demand for “Frontier Nagaland“ is concerned, the eastern Nagas have their genuine grievances for which the RPP fully supports the reasons for their grievances, it stated.
During the party’s 34-day walkathon around Nagaland the RPP observed that eastern Nagaland is indeed poorly developed, and as such the grievances of eastern Naga people cannot be brushed under the carpet, it added.
