Common platform for NE political parties : Interesting emergence of Mr Rio
- Sangai Express Editorial :: October 24 , 2013 -

A unified regional front is the need of the hour since the Centre looks at the North East as a single entity.

The occasion was right. With Parliamentary election scheduled some time in 2014, the timing was right too.

There could not have been a more suitable personality than the man behind this statement too. Mr Nephiu Rio, Chief Minister of Nagaland and supremo of the Naga People’s Front has certainly come a long way from being the trusted lieutenant of the redoubtable Mr SC Jamir.

From Nagaland People’s Front to Naga People’s Front, the party which Mr Rio founded has made remarkable strides and though he has decided to stay away from National politics, he certainly seems intent on projecting himself as a regional leader, not confining himself to the politics in his home State, Nagaland.

Something which no political leader from Manipur has been able to even come close to.

The coming together of ten regional political parties of the North East under the common platform, christened the North East Regional Political Front, may or may not live up to its billings given the fact that though the Centre may view the North East region as a single entity, there is the all important question of whether the people of the North East view themselves as a single entity or not ?

Can Mr Rio, who has been appointed as the chief convenor of the newly floated common platform, answer this question with conviction ? Or for that matter can any leader of the ten regional political parties answer this question sincerely ?

In stating that the Centre views or sees the North East as a single entity, Mr Rio may have just missed the political dynamics at play here, especially in a place like Manipur where there are competing forces, each representing their own community or ethnic group.

A common platform for the North East is no doubt a good idea, that is if it can metamorphose from an idea to action at the ground reality, for ultimately politics is all about understanding and grasping the reality at the ground level.

Certainly there are a number of common agenda for the seven sister States of the North East. Sikkim which has been clubbed as part of the North East, may just prove to be something of an exception.

But can the common agenda or common interest over ride the internal differences which have taken deep roots ?

The answer to this will certainly rest to a large extent on the political prudence of the men at the helm of affairs but it is interesting to note that in forming the common platform or the North East Regional Political Front, a personality has emerged who can be projected as some sort of a regional leader.

The agenda which the NPF and Mr Rio has been pursuing vis-a-vis a settlement to the Indo-Naga political issues is certainly anathema to a large number of people in Manipur, but it stands true that the NPF has been able to make inroads into the political turf of Manipur.

Not for nothing did The Sangai Express say in the run up to the election to the 10th Assembly in the early part of 2012, that the lone star campaigner was Mr Rio. The figures should speak for itself.

In a House of sixty, with 42 Congress MLAs, the NPF has not done badly at all in managing to send four MLAs to the House in the persons of Samuel Risom (Ukhrul AC), Dr Alexander Pao (Karong AC), Dikho (Mao AC) and ST Nunglur Victor (Chandel AC).

This at a time when the oldest regional political party in the North East region, the Manipur People’s Party, failed to send a single MLA to the Assembly.

Come the Parliamentary election and it can be said with a degree of certainty that the fight will probably be between the NPF and the Congress in the Outer.

The North East Regional Political Front may work or not, but in its formation, has emerged a personality with a regional appeal, Mr Nephiu Rio.

This is the interesting part.