Author: PTI
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: August 5, 2003
NCP general secretary P A Sangma
on Monday said the question of foreign origin of AICC President Sonia Gandhi
and her disqualification to become the Prime Minister on this ground was
very much a part of his party's national agenda and it would never compromise
on it, reports PTI.
"We have never dropped the matter,"
he said on the sidelines of his visit here to congratulate Gegong Apang
on assuming the chief Ministership of Arunachal Pradesh.
"We have been persistently saying
that a person of foreign origin cannot be a Prime Minister of India.
This was said again at the NCP national executive at Kerana recently,"
he said when asked.
Sangma congratulated Gegong Apang
on taking over the reins in Arunachal Pradesh and mooted the floating of
an alliance of political parties to fight the perennial problems of insurgency,
infiltration, and unemployment afflicting the North East.
"Unless the leaders of the North
East fight jointly, the perennial problems of insurgency, infiltration
and growing unemployment cannot be solved. The new alliance would
act as a pressure group to resolve these problems," Sangma said after meeting
Apang here.
"The problems cannot be solved in
isolation, it needs a joint effort by all concerned. . If steps to solve
them were delayed the unity and integrity of the nation as a whole would
be jeopardised,." he said.
He welcomed the participation of
the national parties to join the alliance "since peace and stability of
the region was the need of the hour". The alliance would be floated
on August 24 at a meeting of North East leaders at Sikkim House in New
Delhi, he said, adding its provisional name "North East Peoples Alliance"
would be adopted after ratification.
Chief Ministers of Sikkim, Mizoram,
Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, its Deputy chief Minister and secretary
of its ruling UDF would participate in the meeting, he said. Referring
to the problem of infiltration from Bangladesh to the NE, he said, it had
earlier been confined to Assam, but had now spread 'alarmingly' to the
other states and Nagaland had become the first victim.