Sangma floats alliance in N-E, sticks to Sonia stand

‘‘We have been persistently saying that a person of foreign origin cannot be the prime minister of India. This was said again at the NCP National Executive in Kerala recently,’’ he said.

Sangma congratulated Apang on taking over the reins in Arunachal Pradesh and mooted floating of an alliance of parties to fight ‘‘the perennial problems of insurgency, infiltration and unemployment afflicting the N-E’’.

He announced that the alliance would be floated on August 24 at a meeting of N-E leaders at Sikkim House in Delhi, adding its provisional name, North-East Peoples’ Alliance, would be adopted after ratification. Chief Ministers of Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, their deputy CMs and secretary of the ruling UDF would participate in the meeting.

‘‘Unless the leaders of the North-East fight jointly, the perennial problems 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 are delayed, the unity and integrity of the nation as a whole would be jeopardised,’’ he said. Sangma welcomed national parties to also join the alliance ‘‘since peace and stability of the region are the need of the hour’’.

Referring to the problem of infiltration from Bangladesh to the region, 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’’.

Speaking on the problem of unemployment, Sangma said the proposed alliance would support self-employment among youth of the region.