Kohima, August 29 (MExN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) today responded to the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) press rejoinder published on August 29 defending Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio’s Independence Day speech.
“Whenever the public as well as the opposition NPF try to point out the loopholes and misdeeds of the Government of the day and ask the PDA Government to ponder upon for the welfare of the Naga people, the ruling party instead of putting efforts in running the affairs of the state according to their commitment made to the public, always shies away and plays a blame game,” stated a press release from NPF Press Bureau.
It said that the NPF ruled the State for the last 15 years and “the last 4 years have been exceptional in bringing peace and development to the state.”
NPF’s intention, it added, was to “awaken the government of the day from their slumber to stand up to their promises and work for the public interest and not for publicity sake.” Therefore, the NPF urged the NDPP to work like a ruling party for the people’s interest.
Regarding the NDPP pointing fingers back to NPF on VIP culture, the release stated NPF had raised the issue solely for the benefit of the public as well as for the government of the day to save the state exchequer as the PDA Government has been "randomly" making appointments and "even awarding their losing candidates in the rank of cabinet status, minister of state, advisor, chairman to look after various departments.”
It further accused that the Chief Minister is “fooling” the Naga people by contradicting himself. “During the early part of June 2018 in New Delhi, the Chief Minister had clearly announced to the media that the integration of Naga contiguous areas is not possible, whereas, his Government has recently adopted a resolution in support of integration issue and even on his Independence speech is all out for the integration,” the NPF press release stated.
The opposition party also said NDPP should realize that PDA six months old government is already marred with lots of agitations by the public, civil societies, students, government employees and that it should be taken into consideration before it is too late for the government to survive.
“Taking into account, the Independence Day speech of the Chief Minister itself indicates the poor image of the PDA Government as many of the points reflected in the speech were misleading and visionless,” it maintained.
Stating that the NDPP statement accusing the previous NPF government time and again is “nonsensical”, NPF urged the NDPP to be more realistic in their approach and work for the people as the party is “in no mood to continue with the paper wars.”
