Sonia Gandhi, government attack each other over NSCN-IM agreement

NEW DELHI: The Congress and the government got into another round of political wrestling, with Sonia Gandhi accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not taking chief ministers of northeastern states into confidence before signing the peace accord with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM) faction. The government hit back by saying the Congress was playing politics even on issues of national security.

Sonia Gandhi told reporters that she was told by Congress chief ministers of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh that they were not consulted by the prime minister before the agreement with NSCN-IM was announced. “When I called my chief ministers who are directly affected by this, they were totally blank. No one even bothered to even brief them, perhaps not in detail, but at least in a wide kind of sense. After all, chief ministers of Manipur, Arunachal and Assam are directly affected. So, what do I take from this? From this, I take that this government is arrogant... their arrogance is even more clear than it was before, it's an insult to the chief minister, not only to them, but also to the people of those states and federal structure of our country,” Gandhi said.

Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman retorted soon: “On political issues, you (Congress) are opposing the government. On economic issues, you are opposing. Today on an issue of national security, you are opposing. Whose interest are you serving? Congress has reached the absolute nadir, absolute bottom in their obstructionist politics,” she told journalists at another press interaction.