Reiterating its suggestion on the need for the 14th NLA to lead the Naga peace talk, the Rising People’s Party (RPP) on Monday stated, “Our present MLAs should not view themselves as politicians first but as nationalists first, akin to the founding fathers of the state, particularly the 12 Democratic Party MLAs who resigned in 1964.”
In a press release, the RPP expressed that the elected members’ incapacity to lead the negotiation on Indo-Naga political settlement because they are bound by the Constitution of India, betrays a limited understanding of constitutional possibilities.
It reminded that the Indian National Congress (INC) of pre-independent India was itself a movement and a political party. In elections held under the Government of India Act, 1919, except for the INC, almost every political party participated in the elections. In 1934, the INC for the first time participated in the pan-India Central Legislative Assembly election. In the last election before independence held in 1945 even Jawaharlal Nehru himself was a nominated member of the Central Legislative assembly, Delhi.
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“Both the “Agreed Position” and the “Framework Agreement” are drafts of “Constitutional Reforms” WITHIN the Constitution of India. The Congress (and others) pushed for constitutional reforms WITHIN British India through a two-pronged strategy – as elected members working from within and as mass based bodies advocating for reforms from outside. This strategy led to incremental constitutional reforms through the decades – most notably, the GoI Act 1909, 1919, and 1935 – eventually leading to the ultimate reform, the INDIA INDEPENDENCE ACT 1947,” stated the RPP.
It further added, “The honourable members of the 14th NLA may feel that they are hamstrung by their oath to the Constitution of India, but rather the Constitution of India Is a “Flexible organism” and the MLAs imagined incapacity to lead the peace talks is without substance.”
