An average political soldier, comparatively less exposed to a truly tested or tempered hard-core, cut-throat politics of Nagaland, suddenly got propelled to a position of supreme commander of the State that he had perhaps not even dreamt possible. What really transpired then would qualify as a Nagaland’s version of “Rags to riches” fairy tale that happened as a consequence of a driving discontentment that consumed another privileged human being, who was unable to clearly see through the fog of his over-inflated ambition…despite the unquestioned control he had over his little kingdom. He had become more obsessed with the possibility of a greater power base and a greener monetary pasture in another far away kingdom called New Delhi also known as the Centre. This real intent was politically camouflaged under “helping the Naga negotiated settlement with the Government of India”. Such is an exceptional true story of a real greed for power and money in human nature that extraordinary fairy tales gets woven around. The only difference is that fairy tales of Nagaland never seem to work out to a ‘happily ever after’ conclusion. Does this basic storyline sound familiar? Now let us try to just join the dots…
Neiphiu Rio decided to go to New Delhi as a Lok Sabha MP, vacating his undisputed Chief Minister’s chair. T R Zeliang found himself as the new CM of Nagaland, not by virtue of his own intellectual tenacity but by freak of circumstance. He had just won an impromptu lottery. The problem that then began to plague the system came in the form an expanding vacuum space developing between the ears of T R Zeliang where his brains ought to have resided. There was very little visibility of governing capability or political craftsmanship from the start. The steadily expanding vacuum in T R Zeliang’s head seems to have been systematically overpowered by the higher image of Indian Rupee denominations of Mahatma Gandhi. Was it thanks to his Non-Naga Retired Bureaucrat chief (financial) advisor?
The weather pattern changed for Mr. T R Zeliang the moment Neiphiu Rio discovered that the new pasture that he had hoped to find in New Delhi was less green than the one he left behind. What began as a beautiful spring season for T R Zeliang suddenly turned to autumn. The leaves started to fall. The majority of the NPF Legislators began rooting for a change of leadership. Tourism momentarily flourished at Niathu Resort with the establishment of Neiphiu Rio graciously hosting the autumn leaves that had fallen from T R Zeliang’s tree. The plan however went horribly awry at Niathu Resort. The NPF political animals in the majority who wanted a change of leadership wanted to also continue in NPF when they could have so easily split the party and merged with another Party if they meant business…since the numbers were on their side. The essence of cut-throat politics was still off the chart. Meanwhile the Nagaland Pradesh Congressmen representing the insignificant Opposition Bench and idling in the sideline without any source of income discovered their prospecting opportunity to chip in and claim a piece of the pie by tipping the balance in favour of TR Zeliang despite BJP, their proclaimed arch enemy, being in the same paddock. After all, this was Nagaland and being a member of a National Congress Party at the Centre without pocket money in their kitchen was a poor alternative. The turn of events eventually culminated in an ‘opposition-less’ Legislative Assembly with T R Zeliang still in command and better entrenched than before with all the disgruntled autumn leaves falling back to its original trunk. The erstwhile puppet master Neiphiu Rio was koshered from the NPF Party on a charge of anti-party activity. T R Zeliang was now technically in command of the Ali Baba Assembly without opposition but was practically not in command. With a non-Naga retired bureaucrat as his chief advisor and confident (perhaps with the talent to show T R Zeliang all the devious shortcuts to ‘money’ at New Delhi but devoid of real in-depth understanding of the Naga psyche) T R Zeliang began his reign of trying to go forward engaged in a reverse gear.
Within the Naga kingdom, ACAUT was now emerging as the only worthwhile voice of the people in opposition…countering the otherwise desolate opposition-less Assembly. Since all the Legislators were illegally fishing in the same fishery pond of the state exchequer, each of them felt better off not fielding awkward questions in the Assembly. DAN Government was therefore able to conduct the entire serious business of the State in 15 minutes flat by ensuring no questions were raised in the Assembly through a whip. The last session of Nagaland Legislative Assembly was over before it even began. The season for free ‘turkey shoots’ was declared opened.
On the 31st October 2013, ACAUT kicked off its first campaign against unabated multiple taxation by various directionless NNPG Factions with an active participation of the State Government doing more than its share of damage. Attempting to clean up the corrupt system through legal process, ACAUT induced the Government to set up a High Power Committee (HPC) to dig out the rot in the system. HPC submitted its findings by June 2015 explicitly cataloguing all the rot through sworn depositions proffered to the Committee. This ‘legal approach’ effort turned out to be a waste of time and money because the Government had no intention of acting on this highly incriminating report of the HPC and is still studying it and will continue to study it till kingdom come. ACAUT then picked up the issue of “backdoor appointment” by filing a PIL in the High Court. The Court had passed down a verdict for Government to put a stop to this malpractice. The apathetic Government had shown very little respect for even the legal directives of the Court because immediately thereafter, Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu the NPF Party President flashed off an official party advice to the Cabinet to regularise all the ad-hock backdoor appointees who had completed a minimum of 3 years of their questionable service citing a political reason that the Party was likely to lose votes in the coming election if this was not done. Should Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu become the next Chief Minister we can be sure of the fate of the “Backdoor appointment” issue. Mr. ‘Merit’ is likely to politely be shown the door. That more-or-less would describe the health of the rule of Law in Nagaland.
ACAUT continued its fight against corruption and dug up the only functional industry in Nagaland called the “Fuel Adulteration Industry” working efficiently under the ‘protective eye’ of an equally active partner…the Food and Civil Supplies Department (F&CSD). It was and perhaps still is channelizing the entire State Kerosene oil quota to the adulterating stockists who also extensively run the Petrol Pumps all over Nagaland. Even with ‘red-handed evidences’ galore brought to the notice of the Government, the culprits involved have still not been arrested or brought to justice. Then followed the “Public Distribution System” (PDS) scam…Yet again the F&CSD was caught shamelessly sleeping with PDS Mafias, pilfering rice meant for the common man through their collaborating stockists. Both “Fuel adulteration” and “PDS pilferage” are multi-crore scams that perhaps better the State’s Annual Budget. ACAUT filed an FIR against the proprietor of the godown (Mr. AZ Lotha) after having discovered that FCI rice was being illegally re-bagged in unlabeled plastic bags and servicing the local market at a higher cost. Mr. Lotha was under tremendous pressure (as admitted by him later) by forces beyond his control, who he (AZ Lotha) was fronting, to file a counter FIR against ACAUT on a false charge of ‘trespassing’…though it was the Police and the District Administration who locked up his warehouse after seeing the physical evidence of malpractice. The Government completely ignored the FIR filed by ACAUT against the perpetrators but took very prompt action on the counter affidavit filed by thieving culprits. Three members of ACAUT were arrested and put behind bars while the master brains of pilferage were yet again allowed to roam the streets scot-free. All these despicable events firmly painted a picture that the Government headed by Chief Minister T R Zeliang, who also happened to be the Minister in-charge of F&CSD, was being manned by incorrigible people comfortable with sharing their bed with thieves. It was a clear warning being served to the people that if you file FIR against thieves you will be the one arrested for disturbing their calm pond of corruption. ACAUT had insisted that an independent Central Investigation Team be brought in to go through all this garbage. Instead SIT was instituted by the State with compliant state government servants who audaciously issued a clean chit for Supply Department as expected. ACAUT thereafter responded with a public rally on 15th December 2016 as the last resort to induce the Government to institute CBI inquiry. The Government, through the Police Commissioner Dimapur, chased ACAUT from one location to another with their impromptu Section 144 CrPC stating the reason that the rally would disturb Christmas Shopping! Oh yes! What a compassionate Christmas spirit… after all, what is the use of all the ill contrived money if it cannot be used for shopping especially during Christmas? ACAUT was very insensitive of this public sentiment! The NAP/IRB robots in uniform were ordered to water cannon and tear-gas the peaceful rally initiated by ACAUT and silence the voice of the people with aggressive ‘lathi-charge’. The ‘good fortune’ for TR Zeliang in a bad situation was that no one was shot dead by his robots or else he would have been facing the same fiasco of stepping down on a dishonourable charge of ‘corruption” instead. High tension was simmering beneath the surface. However TR Zeliang and his chief money advisor were in a different planet oblivious to the undercurrent unrest. His superlatively dishonourable flip flop performance on ULB election was the icing on the mishandled governance over a very long period of time under his watch. The dam of pent up frustration of the people was bound to give way and when it finally did, three innocent youth lost their lives. People no longer wanted his mismanagement to continue and so this “rags to riches” fairy tale had to come to an ‘unhappily ever after’ ending.
Now comes the twist in the tale which is perhaps about to unfold. While seemingly agreeing to step down, T R Zeliang pleaded for a few days to facilitate smooth transition of power. What he did not say was about the ‘smooth transition of power’ from him to whom? …though everyone presumed it would be the Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu, President of NPF Party. The word “Smooth” does not normally apply in Nagaland politics. With TR Zeliang having put in his paper, the can of worms had been opened once more. The people of Nagaland can now sit back and watch ‘Academy award-winning’ performance of our very own ‘honourable MLAs’ openly prospecting and prostituting themselves for a bigger fishing pond in the process of setting up the next “Leader” through their body counts.
The next chapter of the story began with 4 MLAs muddying the pond by petitioning NPF Party President to revoke the suspension order against Neiphiu Rio along with another self-proclaimed important pawn in the chessboard (Mr. Imkong) from the NPF Party membership to facilitate Neiphiu Rio to take over leadership as the only saviour for Party Unity. The President NPF Party diplomatically deflected the subject to the Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) to review and decide…basically meaning ‘no can do’…with him sitting with a rod as Chairman of DAC. This was followed by majority of NPF Legislators prescribing Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu as the alternative medicine to remedy the TR Zeliang ailment and allow DAN Government to continue till next election. Neiphiu Rio was quickly called up to report to Delhi. Much later the beleaguered Chief Minister also asked the NTAC to give him a few days time to allow ‘smooth transition of power’ and then clipped off to Delhi ‘coincidently’ with the Governor of Nagaland. The world of the Nagas is full of surprises. Neiphiu Rio was already in Delhi and TR Zeliang being summoned to Delhi along with the RSS Governor was considered significant. Within a short time a sudden change of heart developed, perhaps sensing that New Delhi was in favour of Neiphiu Rio. The majority of the NPF Doctors, meaning the opportunistic NPF Party Legislators who only seem to respond to the feel of money and ‘good times’, were ready for another prescription to remedy the present impasse while stationed at Kaziranga. The old festering sore was re-visited…only this time they preferred NR cure and not Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu or Kaito or Noke. Meanwhile pokerfaced Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu maintained that “we still hold the trump card” without describing the nature of his trump card. One can only speculate that the suspension of Neiphiu Rio from the Party will not be rescinded by the DAC come what may. This technically leaves Neiphiu Rio with a difficult option of resigning from and splitting the NPF party with 2/3 majority and merging with National Congress or BJP. Not a happy choice both ways…On the one hand the ‘old turncoat Congressmen’ would not feel comfortable to go back to their old fold and would probably not be welcomed anyway. On the other hand many of the present NPF MLAs would perhaps not be comfortable to be in the saffron camp…but would Neiphiu Rio also be welcomed by BJP after outright campaign against the party in the past N.E election? Either ways it is a very difficult unpleasant quicksand. His choice is further aggravated by our ‘most respected’ Legislators waiting like vultures on the fence with ‘honour’ and ‘ethics’ locked away in a conscience-less dungeon. It is a very demanding time for Neiphiu Rio in every sense of the word. Depending on how desperately Neiphiu Rio wants his old chair back, it may finally come down to…any Government will do. After all, a change of a Political colour is no big deal as long as the colour of money remains the same. The end game is to do with tonnes of fruits in the orchard yet to be harvested with the Financial Year-end on the anvil…with the next election not too far ahead and the need to accomplish financial harvest to fulfil their paramount objective…to buy our votes. As compared, sailing with Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu would seem to be the path of less inconvenience for all concerned.
Be that as it may, the genesis of TR Zeliang’s colourless fairy tale is now at an end overshadowed by a more controversial nemesis in the form of Neiphiu Rio and Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu as front runners. In a manner of speaking it boils down to a simple question …”Who will the Ali Babas finally choose as their Boss”? No matter what the outcome…the people of Nagaland are about to rediscover the real meaning of “God help us all” which seems eminent. God help us all!
Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Retd.)
Upper Forest Colony; Kohima.
E-mail: kksema@gmail.com
