Facts and fictions fly over the issue of the resignation of the four Naga People’s Front (NPF) legislators in Manipur. According to the NPF MLAs, the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill, 2015, the Manipur Land Revenue & land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Manipur Shop & Establishment (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015 (passed on August 31) are anti Nagas or anti tribals.
The four NPF legislators from Manipur—Samuel Risom, Victor Nunglung, L Dikho and Alexander Pou—did not immediately tender their resignations. It was on September 4 the four MLAs resigned, and that too, by dispatching a fax message from New Delhi to the Speaker of the Manipur Legislative Assembly. It is not clear whether the four NPF legislators have met the Assembly Speaker thereafter.
Now, the point is, August 31 was the date scheduled several days ahead as a Special Assembly Sitting to have the three Bills passed. It was widely publicized in local newspapers. During this period we did not hear a single voice of resentment or protest from the NPF legislators and also from the party level. It was also reported that on August 31 when the Bills were passed the four NPF legislators present in the Assembly did not even raise a voice against it. Staging a protest walk-out from the Assembly could have saved the day but that too was not the case.
We are serious about this development because it is not just about the NPF party or the political future of its legislators. There is an angle of Naga national movement to it.
Now, you can pose as many questions as you can or you can suspend reason for sometimes and listen to your conscience. This is not to suggest that the NPF legislators or their party should stop protesting. The point here is about the lack of clarity of the four NPF legislators on the issue. You have no problem with the three “anti-Naga or anti-tribal Bills” (as many hill based organizations have termed) in the floor of the House but few days later you found the Bills anti-Naga or anti-tribal. Which logic should explain this stance of the four NPF legislators and the party? This flip-flop position of our legislators and the Cock party is going to attract serious criticism from all quarters and we don’t have to be sanguine about the prospect of the party in this distressed Manipur as long as these confused leaders who are enjoying an assured level of support at the moment from the marginalized Naga people in Manipur are in the saddle.
Most tellingly, we don’t think we have gone too far in saying that, to allow such leaders to take part in the Naga movement is to stain the movement.
