DIMAPUR:
The Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim – Isak Muivah (NSCN-IM) has asked state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and minister Temjen Imna Along not to “fiddle” with the Naga flag and the constitution.
“We have no objection to Imna Along’s longing to establish his political base backed by his mentor – the BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). But in the process, he should not fiddle with the Naga flag and the constitution; that is too big for his size,” the NSCN said in a statement, on March 24.
Reacting to Along’s recent comment on the Naga issue in the state Assembly, the NSCN-IM said Along has proved himself to be a “recklessly immature” to touch on the sensitive Naga issue at such a critical stage. The Naga flag and the constitution are something too big for his flamboyant political gamble, it added.
Terming the minister’s discourse on the Naga flag and constitution as “nonsense utterance”, the statement called Along “a boy of yesterday in political arena but in a damning hurry to make his presence felt by dancing madly to the anti-Naga tune played by his political mentors RSS/BJP”.
“He is utterly insensitive to the reality of the Naga history and God’s given political identity as a nation and as a people. This only exposed his heartless and cruel mentality exploiting every given opportunity to castigate the very symbols that identify the Nagas that they are not a lost people,” the statement stated.
“Who is Temjen Along to defiantly choose words to go headlong against the Naga people’s political identity with his infuriating statement saying flag and constitution are not achievable?” it asked.
Stating that the rainbow flag of the Naga nation was something very uniquely made, the outfit said it was designed as divinely inspired and is not the brainwork of anybody.
“Significantly, much before Along was given birth to this earth, thousands of Naga people had attained martyrdom defending the legitimate historical and political rights of the Nagas as symbolized by the Naga flag and the constitution. Many have embraced death to give a better future to our motherland,” the statement by NSCN said.