Nagaland: Tribal body Naga Hoho calls for a boycott of polls, demands solution to insurgency
The Assembly poll has been scheduled for February 27, the election commission had announced.
Naga Hoho, the top group of tribal organisations in Nagaland, has said it will not allow the upcoming Assembly elections in the state, The Nagaland Post reported on Saturday. The group reiterated its call to seek a “solution before election” – referring to the seven-decade-old insurgency in the state.
The 60-member Nagaland Assembly’s term comes to an end on March 13. Elections will be held on February 27, the Election Commission said on Thursday.
“The stand of the organisation is not to allow the election,” Naga Hoho President P Chuba Ozukum told The Indian Express. “Now all civil societies, tribes, political parties and the Naga national workers [insurgent groups] want a solution before the elections.”
Ozukum urged political leaders to not file nominations for the elections. He said all Nagas are united on the issue this time: “This time it is different from 1998. This time Nagas are one.”
Insurgency and elections
In 1997 too, Naga Hoho had boycotted elections soon after the Centre and separatist group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) signed a ceasefire agreement. However, even though most political parties stayed out of the polls, the Congress did not, and elections went ahead.
In 2015, the Centre and NSCN (IM) signed a Framework Agreement to end insurgency, the details of which have never been released. Last month, the Nagaland Assembly again asked the Centre to find a solution to end the crisis before the elections. Earlier in January, various organisations in the state urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defer the Assembly elections.
The Nagaland Tribes Council said the ongoing political negotiations between the Centre’s interlocutor RN Ravi and the Working Committee should continue without letting the elections be a distraction from the peace process.
However, the organisation told The Indian Express that it did not favour a boycott of elections. Instead, it hoped that political parties accept the legislators’ resolution and opt out of elections themselves, said Theja Therieh, the organisation’s secretary.