Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday said the Centre is willing to give more seats in Parliament and in the state assembly to resolve the decades-old Naga political issue.
Addressing a mammoth gathering during the inaugural session of the Platinum Jubilee celebration of Chakhesang Students’ Union (CSU), an apex body of Phek district, Rio said the Central government and the Naga nationalist groups are willing to give more seats to Nagaland in both houses of Parliament.
Rio said “Nagas need to start anew as one family with no hurt burning against one another or deceiving one another to create disharmony in society,” he said.
The four-time chief minister and one-time Lok Sabha MP added that the Naga negotiation parties and the government of India are prepared to give more Lok Sabha seats, more Rajya Sabha seats and more assembly seats to Nagaland.
Only when all these political spaces for the people are created to participate, justice and peace can prevail in Nagaland, he said.
“Unless there is a settlement and solution to the Naga issue, there is no perfect peace in our land... in the process, we got a statehood and through this statehood, we are surviving and somehow have been progressing,” said Rio.
Expounding on settlement, Rio said there is so much injustice in Naga society—from the government to the leaders to the communities—and there is a need to rearrange the whole state and also change the mindset of the people to become a better society and survive as a people.
“I want a solution because that will bring a new hope for the youth, the students and for the future,” he said.
Towards this, he said the 60 members of the state assembly have come together and formed the opposition-less United Democratic Alliance (UDA) as the government wants the Nagas to be united and the coming together is for the cause of Naga political solution to the vexed problem.
The Nagaland chief minister reiterated that the Oting incident in December last year, where Army personnel fired, killing 14 civilians in a case of mistaken identity, was “most unfortunate”. He said, “For the first time, the government of India and the Army have admitted their mistakes and there is a public hue and cry, for repeal of AFSPA.”
He said Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which grants extra-judicial powers of arrest to the armed forces, was introduced in the state in 1958, to combat Naga insurgency.
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“Even if AFSPA cannot be repealed from the whole country, we are demanding it should be lifted from Nagaland, except the international border and interstate boundaries,” Rio said.
The chief minister also pointed out that in the name of the Naga struggle, extortion, illegal taxation, threat and intimidations have been existing, sapping away the morale of the people and hoped that with a lasting peace, all this would end.