Mokokchung, October 31 (MTNews): The Rising People’s Party (RPP) has urged the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, who is scheduled to visit Nagaland on November 2, to travel by road from Dimapur Airport to Kohima and avoid the air route to experience the road condition. RPP stated this in a letter to the President of India on Monday, copies of which were made available to the media.
While stating that the President’s visit will be an honour for a tribal state like Nagaland, RPP, however, said in the letter that the general public would deeply appreciate it if the President could traverse by road instead of riding the helicopter.
Recounting the Late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to the state in 2004, the RPP wrote, “The one and only time a visiting dignitary, whether a Prime Minister or President of India, who travelled by road – from Dimapur airport to the state capital Kohima – was the Late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004.”
“Experiencing the road condition, the late PM was reported to have quipped, ‘If this is the best road in Nagaland, it is difficult to imagine how bad the worst is’”, the RPP added.
The party also said that the state government surely has in place a comfortable itinerary for the President’s visit, “including a helicopter ride to reach Kohima in 15 minutes instead of a road trip which may take 3 hours for a mere 74 km journey.”
The often tried and tested cliché “Security Reasons” may have guided the state government’s decision, RPP said, but added that, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of India, the President is well aware that Nagaland has been an oasis of peace for the last 25 years. The RPP wrote that it hopes that the suggestion is taken in the right spirit.
Further, RPP also wrote to the President that her proposed visit coincides with the sesquicentennial celebration of the advent of Christianity in Nagaland. “We believe that there was an oversight for which the state government alone may give an appropriate explanation,” it stated.