The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has implored the Government of India to accept the demands put forwarded by the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organization (ENPO) in a statement issued on March 31.

With recent discourses in the public domain on the ENPO’s demand for Frontier Nagaland Territory, including the Press Statement issued by K Therie, former Minister and PCC President, the NPCC issued the statement to reiterate its stance on the issue.

In his statement, Therie mentioned that the ENPO’s decision to boycott the election is an extreme step, and a breakdown of the Constitution, which will go down in the history of Nagaland’s Statehood as a black chapter.

Therie underscored the importance of the voice of ENPO and its Frontals, maintaining that the ENPO is standing on issues of discrimination and grievances with support of the rural population and the Youth, which deserved to be respected.

He further appealed the Governor of Nagaland to call upon the Govt. of the day to resolve the problem across the table.

“First of all, Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee wants to make it clear that the said statement reflects his personal opinion and should in no way be construed as our official party position. As far as our opinion is concerned, we strongly believe that the demand of ENPO is genuine and we are totally behind them in this Just Movement. We stand behind them in the realisation that this demand of theirs is the result of a history of serious grievances, and is coming from a place of drastic trust deficit,” stated the NPCC.

It accused the successive governments during the last decade in the State as well as the centre of widening the dissonance with their complete lack of empathy and abject political mediocrity.

While acknowledging the merits of the concerns raised by a section of the political class in the state regarding the manner and the style of the intervention adopted by ENPO, the NPCC also recognized the lack of viable platforms available to the ENPO to escalate their demand within the ambit of conventional democratic norms.

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“We had time and again underscored the perils of promoting a governance system built on the premises of a plan that doesn’t accord adequate space for the opposition bench, and this we believe is one of the major reasons for the ENPO’s current choice of agitation. We believe that as far as this issue is concerned, all stakeholders have had their say and come up short, and that the only way forward to ensure a closure that keeps the dignity and aspirations of our sisters and brothers from ENPO areas should be one where their voice takes the sole and final call,” asserted the NPCC.

The NPCC therefore Implored upon the Government of India to accept the demand put forth by ENPO, and to refrain from taking any steps that is in contravention to spirit of the ENPO resolutions.