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Citing vehement opposition from the Congress, a bitter PA Sangma has decided to disassociate himself from the Centre's attempt to appoint him as the chief negotiator for Northeast.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Sangma, a former Lok Sabha speaker and Nationalist Congress Party leader, said that the Congress had blocked his appointment as the chief interlocutor of the Naga peace talks.
He also termed the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government as the least performing government that the country had ever had.
Giving details of the circumstances under which his name had cropped up, Sangma said: "The prime minister had proposed to appoint me as the new interlocutor for the talks. When I told Vajpayee that it would be a very difficult job, he requested me to take up the assignment for the sake of the country."
"I agreed to the proposal on two conditions. Firstly, I would initiate talks with all the militant outfits of the region and secondly, I should be allowed to hold discussions with the prime minister and the government about the developmental activities in the northeast," he said.
Sangma said the prime minister later backtracked and told him that he could not go ahead with the plan because of the opposition of the Congress.
"I told the prime minister that if he couldn't take a decision without consulting the opposition parties, then I couldn't help him," he said.
The former Lok Sabha speaker, however, denied that the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) had ever opposed the idea of appointing him as the new interlocutor.
"On the contrary, I was told that the chief ministers of Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh (all ruled by the Congress), had opposed my appointment," Sangma revealed.
He said that anyone who was going to play the role, had to have the full cooperation and support from the chief ministers of the states concerned.
The former speaker also alleged that all the key ministers of the central government had failed to perform.
"This is the least performing government that the country has ever had," he said.
With the recent reshuffle, the Bharatiya Janata Party had consolidated its position within the government, he added.
"But I think this is the beginning of the end of the NDA government."
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