'Congress' Manipur visit was to help Naga talks'
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Trust of India
Kohima, January 11 2013:
With objections by ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) over recent visit of a Congress team from state to Manipur, former chief minister SC Jamir on Friday said that the meeting was an effort to help resolve Naga issue.
A five-member Nagaland Congress team led by Jamir recently visited Imphal and met Manipur Pradesh Congress president and Home Minister Gaikham Gaigam and CM O Ibobi Singh "to seek their moral support for the party" for the coming assembly election in Nagaland.
Referring to the unofficial visit, Jamir in a statement said, "It is unfortunate that in Nagaland there is a tendency to look at every sincere and honest effort with jaundiced eyes" .
Jamir, former governor of Goa and Maharashtra, said that as members of the Congress family, it was felt strongly by the five-member team that Manipur Chief Minister should be apprised of the genuine feelings of all sections of the people involved in the ongoing Naga political process.
"The decades of political negotiation (between the Centre and underground groups) is on the threshold of final consummation in which Manipur had to play a positive role," he said.
"It was time for all the organisations to put their very sincere efforts to help in the early solution of Naga problem and fall in line with the resolution of 60 MLAs (of Nagaland Assembly) in this great political experiment," the statement said.
On July 19 last year all the 60 MLAs of Nagaland Assembly resolved that they were ready to resign to pave the way for an alternative political arrangement in the event of an early political settlement of the protracted Naga conflict.