1. We condemn the irresponsible statement of Yitachu which appeared in some local dailies on Monday. Yitachu while siding with Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu and his son must remember that he had extended his support in sound mind and out of his free will reaffirming TR Zeliang as Leader of the NPF Legislature Party and DAN Legislature Party. TR Zeliang was elected as the Leader of the NPF Legislature Party on 14.5.2014 and Chairman, DAN on 22.2.2017 and on both occasions, Yitachu had voted in favor of TR Zeliang which cannot be denied what so ever. And once signatures of majority of the MLAs in a Legislature Party meet are appended to the resolutions, it becomes the final word of the majority. Since from such effective date TR Zeliang has been functioning both as Chairman, DAN with Cabinet status and Leader of NPF legislature Party and since no new person has been elected in this regard till date, TR Zeliang has all the legitimacy and mandate of the NPF Legislature and DAN Legislature to lead and execute all delegated authority.
2. Yitachu’s motive to hoodwink the people of Nagaland for his shameless political gains while exerting all kinds of threats and intimidations under his so called legal expertise can be considered as nothing but cheap publicity gimmicks. He may have fooled his Constituency people pretending to be a top notch Lawyer but the rest of the Nagas will never buy his misleading stories. Yitachu must immediately stop acting as the Encyclopedia of the Nagas and if there is any grey matter left between his ears, he must brush up his memory and try to recollect that he was inducted from the Pochury Tribe under TR Zeliang’s leadership, for which he along with his Community must remain grateful to former CM TR Zeliang. His days are numbered and he may not remain as Minister in the near future but though ungrateful a person he is, misleading his new-found mentor Dr. Shurhozelie by making him file his nomination for the upcoming by-election to Northern Angami-I exercising his persuasive dirty tricks to table before the Governor for dissolving the Assembly is the cheapest trick of them all. If the Assembly is dissolved like he had suggested then which Assembly Session was Dr. Shurhozelie going to attend? Yitachu is totally misleading the Nagas and it should not come as a surprise if he misleads more of his own colleagues within his own Camp in the days to come. Acknowledging both Shurhozelie and TR Zeliang as NPF Legislature Party Leaders itself displays how confused Yitachu is as a Politician since in a Democratic Party system there can be only one Legislature Party Leader which in this case is TR Zeliang. Period. Yitachu must go back to School and learn how the Constitution allows the formation of a popular Government as Government is never formed by majority of Cabinet Ministers and that too under the leadership of a non-elected Member. Government is always formed by the voice of the majority elected members in the House which is mandated by the people. The Naga people fail to understand what Yitachu meant by the ‘voice of the people’- does he meant to say that paid Youths standing on the streets with nonsense placards are the voice of the people? A man calling himself a legal man must introspect himself and not stoop so low just to protect his Chair.
3. After sacking NPF as well as Independent MLAs from their offices as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries under DAN Government who had duly taken oath of allegiance to the Constitution of India, Yitachu terms such actions as purely internal affairs of the NPF Party which makes one wonder what sort of a legal background he comes from as this action itself proves that the present crisis involves DAN Government. By all means, if it was simply an internal Party affair, why did Shurhozelie and his 11 Legislators approach the Court of Law instead of resigning from the Chair to settle the differences internally? Yitachu’s hallucinating opinion that Shurhozelie still enjoys absolute majority constitutionally and legally, is nothing but pure hogwash.
4. On 4.7.2017, TR Zeliang was declared as the undisputed leader by a majority of 34 MLAs which was further supported by 3 more NPF MLAs and as such 37 out of 47 recognizes and sanction the leadership of TR Zeliang. Such a sanction does not exist either with Yitachu or NPF Party President whereas true to democracy, more than 2/3 majority is in support of TR Zeliang. 37 MLAs forms the majority group while 10 MLAs forms the minority group in the NPF Party and it does not need a rocket Scientist to figure out the logic here-10 MLAs cannot seek to control the 37 MLAs while the inference that 37 can control 10 is completely reasonable. Yitachu’s claim on disqualification of NPF MLAs who vote against the Party Whip is true and if he and his misguided colleagues understand the logic, it must not be difficult to figure out who and which group stands at the brink of disqualification. The truth about appointment of Whip, by whom and in what Forum, will be made known at the time of voting or after voting on the floor of the House. The Law will tell us at the right time.
5. Yitachu should recollect how on the fateful evening of 16.02.2017, Legislators were summoned to President Dr. Shurhozelie’s residence by K.G Kenye, MP (RS) and took the decision to ask TR Zeliang to step down from his Chair immediately where he succumbed to pressure tactics of Dr. Shurhozelie and KG Kenye. The Party functionaries in any political party have no authority to summon elected members and take decisions of the Legislature Party where there is incumbent CM and Leader of the Legislature Party. Yitachu was against such dictatorial action earlier but today, within a few months, he has become a different person just for the fear of losing his Chair. It was Yitachu who had told Dr.Shurhozelie that a non-elected member could not be the Leader of the House (NPF Legislature Party) but today Yitachu has changed his color stating ‘the Leader of the House is Dr. Shurhozelie by virtue of being the CM’ contradicting every bit of his previous statement. More details will be divulged unless Yitachu stops his baloney at the earliest.
6. ‘One man-two posts’ Shurhozelie and his 10 MLAs have misused all available Government machineries while completely tarnishing the image of NPF Party’s Office as well as the CMO. It is for the Naga people to realize that the minority Chief Minister, Shurhozelie and his 11 MLAS are turning out to be nothing more than imposters throttling the voice of Nagaland while turning the State into a laughing stock before the outside world. Gratefulness is indeed a quality that an erudite person like Dr. Shurhozelie should be able to display when confronted with hard facts and reality given the fact that TR Zeliang had initiated a smooth transition over to him which he should have reciprocated resisting the evil designs of his cronies and his personal greed for power. It is the 43 elected MLAs under the Leadership of TR Zeliang who have the mandate to run the affairs of the State and not the 11 MLAs out of the present effective strength in the 59 member House. DR. Shurhozelie should own moral responsibility on NPF Party crisis since the day the Hon’ble MP, N Rio left for Delhi. He has not been honest to himself and Party Legislators and became the Chief Minister out of the way as every Naga knows his true nature in public life.
Let the Naga people judge who is representing their voice and mandate of the people.
