Going through the Rejoinder issued by the Chief Minister’s Office in response to the Media & Press Bureau of the NPF this morning, one is convinced that a brand new Messiah has arrived in our midst to tell us that we Nagas have been living in ignorance, groping in the dark and following a political way of life that is totally wrong and erroneous: Kiyanilie Peseyie, we are enlightened by this Messiah, is not and was never the Whip of the NPF party!
We are informed that Kiyanilie Peseyie was chosen by the Leader of the House in 2014. Forgive us if we sound like Doubting Thomas, but pray tell, how do you explain the fact that it was the NPF President Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu, and not the then Leader of the House TR Zeliang, who wrote to the Speaker of the Naga Legislative Assembly on November 14, 2014, appointing Kiyanilie Peseyie as the Chief Whip of the NPF party, and the appointment was notified the next day by the Assembly Secretariat?
Of course, this Mr Know-It-All would like to point out to us that we have been wallowing in ignorance all this while accepting Kiyanilie as the Whip of the NPF, and that the proceedings of the Assembly on February 5, 2015 was a complete farce and that TR Zeliang’s ministry till February 22, 2017 was an illegal regime accepted by moronic and shallow-brained citizenry!
Going by the response of the CMO and the premise that it is the majority of the legislators who appoint the Whip of the party (doesn’t matter if the legislators are expelled or suspended from that very political party), one is at a loss to comprehend as to why Kuzholuzo Nienu’s Whip – he being appointed by the majority of the NPF legislators way back in 2015 – was not accepted and why Kiyanilie’s Whip – who, we are now told, is never the Whip of the NPF party – was accepted! Perhaps, we might be told by this latest Constitutional Pundit, that the Speaker too, like us, was naïve and uninformed!
The general contention of the CMO is that since the Chief Minister has majority support of the legislators in the Assembly, he, the Chief Minister can appoint himself as the Chief Whip of the political party from which he has been expelled, and that he along with the legislators, being in the majority, can elect someone of their choice to be the Interim President of the party from which they are all either suspended or expelled! Now, this raises some pertinent legal and logical questions:
How can an expelled member of the NPF become the Chief Whip of the very political party from which he has been expelled?
How can there be two Whips for a single political party in a single House?
Since when was the appointment of Kiyanilie Peseyie as the Chief Whip of the NPF party dated November 14, 2014 cancelled or rescinded?
Since when have the legislators of a political party been empowered/ authorized to elect their own Whip without the knowledge, consent or approval of the political party they belong to?
When the intention of the 91st amendment of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India was to give “teeth” to the political parties to control their legislators, how is it possible that the legislature wing of the political party competent enough to elect its own Whip to dictate on the political party?
Which part of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution gives power or authority to the legislature wing to issue directions to the legislators when it is clearly mentioned that a member of a House belonging to any political party shall be disqualified for being a member of the House “if he votes or abstains himself from voting in such House contrary to any direction issued by the political party to which he belongs…” Nowhere is there any whiff of a mention that a member is liable to be disqualified if he votes contrary to the direction issued by the “legislature party”!
This political Messiah may like to enlighten us rustics about the decision of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in the case of Ram Bilas Sharma V. Speaker, Haryana Vidhan Sabha (1997) wherein it was observed that a “legislature party” is not a separate entity and is nothing but a wing of the Political Party. Furthermore, reference should be made to the ruling of the Supreme Court in the cases of Jagjit Singh V. State of Haryana (2006) and Rajendra Singh Rana V Swami Prasad Maurya (2007) wherein the Court declared that reference to “original political party” cannot be construed to refer to the “legislature party”!
Ramblings of a political Messiah should not be and must not be taken seriously because these Messiahs pay flying visits to the State, assume that we are still living in the sticks, deliver lectures, nay, sermons and disappear back to their comfort zones. And the political Messiah in question today appears to be quite a Johnny-Come-Lately because he seems to be ignorant of the existence of the Media & Press Bureau of the Naga People’s Front, Central Headquarters, which has been around since Donkey’s years, and could not refrain from terming the Bureau as “so called”, not even the grammatically correct “so-called”, all through the write-up! Nor does the fellow, the Johnny-Come-Lately, seem to be aware of what transpired at the General Convention of the NPF on November 26, 2014 where it was decided to streamline the NPF Constitution to address impediments for smooth and efficient functioning of the Central office, and which was adopted by the Central Executive Council of the party on January 29, 2016.
The NPF quite understands the need for visitors to the State to write whatever comes to their mind, no matter even if it is unadulterated crap, so that they can earn the favours of their pay masters for their air fare and comfortable stay in the State. We are confident that the discerning Nagas public will forgive their transgressions in the true tradition of Naga hospitality, and wish them well when the matters come up to the Courts for hearing.
