The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has alleged that Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio “the most ardent apologists of the BJP”, has chosen to “conveniently turn blind” to the discriminatory treatment against minorities in India. Referring to CM Rio’s speech on 8th April 2024 during a campaign coordination meeting of the People’s Democratic Alliance at Kohima.

Speaking at the event the Chief Minister had said that his government would never compromise the faith and identity of the Nagas and that it was a Congress propaganda to project BJP as anti-Christian and anti-minority.

In reply, NPCC has said that CM Rio’s denial on the face of realms of data documenting the injustices on the Country’s minorities, including the Christian community, “speaks volumes about the weight of his assurance”.

Nagaland Congress, in its press release, also condemned the language used by Rio to “belittle” candidature of the opponents terming it “unbecoming of the high office that he holds”. The Party also stated that with his experience in politics, the CM should know that “a weak or strong candidature will be decided on counting day, by the electorate, not by the subjective views of an individual.”

Hitting back at Rio’s statement that the only thing Congress had done for Nagaland was to impose President’s Rule, NPCC said that this “allegations of misuse of Article 356 by past Congress governments looks like a traffic offense in comparison to the wholesale and brazen misuse of state apparatus happening at present under the Modi government.”

The Congress Party further hoped that the people of Nagaland will give a clear and strong mandate in its favour in “a free, fair & clean election”.