NEW DELHI: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his claim of having secured a Naga peace agreement in 2015, saying that the premier’s words had no meaning.
“August 2015, Mr Modi claims to create history by signing the Naga accord. Feb 2018, Naga Accord is still nowhere to be found. Modi ji is the first ever Indian PM whose words don’t mean anything,” Rahul tweeted.
Nagaland will have assembly polls on February 27.
On August 3, 2015, the Centre’s interlocutor for the Naga peace talks, R N Ravi, signed an agreement on behalf of the government. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) was represented by chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah. Modi was present on the occasion. The pact was said to mark the conclusion of the dialogue on the Naga political issue, which has been festering for the past six decades, but no details of the framework agreement have emerged till date.
Naga militant leader Isak Chishi Swu, who led a bloody insurgency in the Northeast for over three decades, died in 2016.
The Congress chief’s comment came days after the BJP parted ways with Naga Peoples Front, its ally for 15 years, and tied up with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party in the state, which has seen political volatility over the past few weeks. Both BJP and NPF were members of the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland.
While political parties in the north-eastern state had recently decided to boycott the polls, they seem to be coming around to the idea of participating in the democratic exercise. The Congress has deployed four central observers for Nagaland, including former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki, Lok Sabha member from Assam, Gaurav Gogoi, former Assam minister Pradyut Bordoloi and former AICC secretary Capt Praveen Davar.
The state unit of the Congress has accused the ruling DAN of indulging in corruption, especially in the appointment of teachers, coal supply and infrastructure projects.
‘Lotus will bloom in tripura’
Agartala: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said “lotus will bloom” in Tripura after the Assembly polls as the people of the state were “disenchanted” with the “corrupt” Left Front government. Tripura is set go to polls on February 18. The results will be declared on March 3. “Seeing the huge turnout at the party’s roadshow, ‘Vijay Sankalapa Yatra’, this morning, I now have no doubt that the corrupt Left Front government will be rooted out in the Assembly polls,” he said at a public rally in the state capital. The home minister said he was surprised to know that 66 per cent of the state’s people lived below the poverty line.