Kohima: With just two days away for the Hornbill Festival to begin, and as the Nagas from Eastern Nagaland seem determined to go ahead with their decision to boycott the festival, a meeting of the Nagaland state cabinet held at Naga Heritage Village at Kisama near Kohima today decided to appeal to the Nagas of Eastern Nagaland to reconsider their decision.
Nagas under Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) said they would boycott this year’s Hornbill Festival over the issue of their demand to create a separate state — Frontier Nagaland. ENPO has been demanding Frontier Nagaland, a separate state, for a long time now.
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Meanwhile, today’s cabinet meeting noted that the grievances raised by Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) and “tribal hohos” of the respective tribes with regard to participation of cultural troupes in Hornbill Festival have been duly addressed by the government by providing necessary additional facilities, an official statement said. The cabinet also noted that the Union Home Minister had already given an appointment to meet the ENPO delegation on December 3, 2022 in Delhi. With regard to the demand for a separate state, the cabinet was of the view that whenever the Nagaland Legislative Assembly session is convened, the MLAs of ENLU, if and when they desire to discuss it, may move accordingly and the same shall be deliberated threadbare.
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“After detailed deliberations, the cabinet decided to make an appeal to ENPO and the tribes of the districts of Eastern Nagaland to participate in the Hornbill Festival by allowing their cultural troupes to join the festival and also to run the various morungs,” the official statement added.
“In view of the position stated above and in light of the appeal made by the state cabinet, it is requested to allow the cultural troupes and other people of the districts of Eastern Nagaland to participate in the Hornbill Festival 2022,” it further added.
NNN