Cong says it will solve Naga problem if voted to power

The Congress will solve the vexed Naga problem if voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha election, NPCC president K Therie said Sunday.

"Give us another chance to deliver and if we do not, throw us out," Therie appealed to the voters.

Even after the signing of the framework agreement with the NSCN(IM) in 2015 and six Naga nationalist political groups joining the peace talks separately, there has not been a breakthrough on the decades-old Naga problem.

"The Indian National Congress and the founding fathers of the Nagaland Congress have delivered political solution in the past due to which the Nagas are enjoying the fruits of statehood and are protected under Article 371(A) of the Constitution," the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) chief said in a statement.

Chishi was chosen as the Congress candidate to contest the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland after wide consultations to accommodate the views of like-minded parties, societies and groups, he said.

The party has appealed to the like-minded parties for their support to their candidate in view of the common belief in secularism, opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Bill and early political solution to the Naga issue.

The Congress will also scrap the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill if it comes to power, the NPCC chief said in a statement.

A largescale protest had erupted in the Northeastern states as the indigenous people of the region were apprehending that if the Citizenship Bill was enacted, it would endanger their livelihood and identity.

The bill, being vehemently opposed in the region even by certain allies of the BJP, was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 but was not tabled in the Rajya Sabha.

The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.