Rejoinder to NDPP on Citizenship Amendment Bill by NPF

Kohima, January 18, 2019

The Naga People's Front has strongly condemned the press statement issued by NDPP Media & Communication Committee that appeared in the news daily on the 18th of January 2019, in which made a desperate attempt to further confuse and brainwash the Nagas whose spirit of conviction has already been awakened as far as this disastrous Citizenship Amendment Bill is concern.

" NDPP acting as the guardian of law and seeking to project Article 371 A as the ultimate cure that can protect the Nagas from this controversial Bill has proved futile ", because the NDPP is not the interpreter nor the guardian of the Indian Constitution, and has no right to even try explaining to the Naga People , as their real color has already been exhibited with Nagaland Chief Minister and his Cabinet deciding not to oppose the Bill in the first place.

The NPF wondered as to why instead of supporting and protecting the Naga people, the NDPP party is continuously feeding the Naga people with a wrong interpretation of Article 371 (A) & BEFRA.

Firstly, the NDPP should clarify why the government of the day is not opposing but supporting the controversial Bill when the whole of Naga people including the other parts of North Eastern region is making much hue and cry over the Bill.

NPF seek to know from NDPP whether the Village institutions or the Village Councils are the sole authority of granting Citizenship to an illegal immigrants or outsiders as claimed by them?

The NPF asked, "once the Bill is enacted as an Act of law, can the NDPP stop any foreign settler of Hindu religion who have settled in our state for a period of six years from obtaining the Indian citizenship?" Once the Bill is passed, Nagaland cannot be exceptional as any other foreigner settling in any part of the Country for a period of six years who can obtain the Indian citizenship.

No matter how hard the NDPP tried to explain or hide the misdeed and misadventure of its Chief Minister and his Cabinet, is doing more harm, as the Nagas are not so ignorant anymore. NPF cautioned that Citizenship Amendment Bill directly undermined Article 371 A, as the Article itself cannot override the Constitution of India, and therefore, the NDPP should stop making a spectacle of themselves, trying to sow seeds of confusion in the minds of the intellectual and the enlightened Nagas.

NPF rather asked the NDPP what their Chief Minister Rio was doing when this Citizenship Amendment Bill comes up in 2016 as he was a sitting duck MP in the Lok Sabha at that point of time. NDPP should not forget that Rio was the NPF MP to Lok Sabha when this Bill was introduced in the Parliament in 2016, but he did not bother to do anything.

If the NDPP takes into consideration that the Bill should not be applicable in the state of Nagaland in line with the Article 371 (A), did the Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio who is the former Lok Sabha MP, and also the present Lok Sabha MP Mr. Tokheho Yepthomi raised in the parliament that Nagaland be exempted from such Bill under the provision of the Article 371 (A)?

Taking all these facts into consideration, the NDPP should not forget that their PDA MP, Mr. Tokheho was MP when the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on the 8th of January 2019.

At the behest of pleasing the Central leaders, the NDPP led PDA Government should not fool the Naga people, as it is still fresh in the minds of the Nagas that after the cabinet decision on 5th June 2018, the PDA team led by Chief Minister has met the Prime Minister and Home Minister and committed that the Nagaland PDA Government decided not to oppose the CAB.

The NPF party reminded the people of Nagaland that it will always stand with the principles of regionalism to protect and safeguard the rights of the Nagas, and therefore, the NPF MP to Rajya Sabha will remain faithful and vote against the Bill come what may.

It requested the NDPP not to politicize the issue but to take up the matter for the future of the Naga people. The NPF have not raised this issue merely as an opposition party to the Government, but taking into consideration the magnitude and severity of the Bill that is going to place the Naga people in a precarious state in the near future.

Issued by,
Press Bureau,
Naga people's Front
Central Headquarter,
Kohima: Nagaland.