Arunachal Indigenous Tribes Forum opposes entry of Naga People's Front in electoral politics

ITANAGAR: AITF, a conglomeration of various tribal communities in Arunachal Pradesh, has opposed the entry of Naga People's Front into the electoral politics of the state. For the first time, NPF, a Nagaland-based political party, has fielded 11 candidates for April 9 Assembly polls in the state. The EC had, through a notification dated March 20, allowed it to contest in 28 constituencies.

"The entry of NPF in Arunachal Pradesh assembly polls is detrimental to the territorial integrity of the state which will jeopardize the very existence of the state's indigenous tribal population in the near future," The Arunachal Indigenous Tribes Forum chairman Bengia Tolum said today.

Demanding withdrawal of the EC's notification in the greater interest of the people of the state, Tolum said, Arunachal Pradesh was not under the purview of ' Greater Nagalim'. Stating that the forum had already submitted memoranda at various levels, he demanded the political parties of the state to spell out their stand on the NPF.

"The sole objective of the NPF is specifically for the promotion of the interests of the Naga people of Nagaland and nothing to do with the growth and development of Arunachal Pradesh," Tolum.

He said there was no logic for the NPF to contest elections in Arunachal Pradesh as there was neither any Naga inhabited areas nor any indigenous Naga population in the state. The NPF constitution, he said, was totally against the territorial interests of Arunachal Pradesh as it proposed to integrate the so-called Naga inhabited areas under one administrative roof.