Our Correspondent
Kohima, Dec. 20 (EMN): Stung by being issued a ‘show cause’ notice by his own party, the NPF’s Rajya Sabha MP, KG Kenye on Friday resigned from his position as the party’s secretary-general—contending that he was denied audience by the NPF president to explain his action, despite several appeals.
Addressing a press conference in Kohima, Kenye said that the NPF president Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu had called him after his interview to Rajya Sabha TV during which he had endorsed the Citizenship Amendment Bill, later passed as an Act.
According to Kenye, that was the last time he had talked with Liezietsu even as his several attempts, later on, to meet the president was turned down.
In his resignation letter, Kenye has made a pointed reference: “It is a very rare case that a high profile party office bearer should fall under the DAC scanner as my integrity has become questionable. I am taking this step so as to save the prestige and image of the party.”
The MP also admitted that he owes the people of Nagaland an explanation for his voting in favour of the CAA. “But I have delayed it for so long because I was the secretary-general of NPF, a political party. So I thought it most appropriate that I should give priority to my party, and explain to them first.”
According to him, the NPF was right in maintaining that the Article 371 (A) and Inner Line Permit (ILP) regulations were not enough to protect Nagas from “the demographic invasion of Indian citizens into our land.”
He cited an interview with the former chief minister Dr. SC Jamir had given to a local newspaper and maintained that he agrees with Jamir’s assertion. “I fully agree with him. Who else is a better person alive now than the lone surviving signatory to the 16-Point Agreement, which gave birth to Article 371. So, he is absolutely correct that these two provisions cannot protect us.”
But, he maintained, the then Citizenship Amendment Bill was revised on December 9 after which exemptions were made for states under ILP regime and those under the Sixth Schedule.
With this new development, Kenye said, it would have been meaningless to oppose the Bill. He went on to claim that the revised version will only strengthen the BEFRA 1873 (Inner Line Permit), and it is up to the state government to ensure that the “full powers of the ILP are realised”.
He stated that the coverage of BEFRA 1873 (ILP) is no longer a union cabinet decision “but is compulsory since it is an extension of the Parliament now”.
The MP also maintained that though many of the states are opposing the CAA, ‘they have their own unique, distinct issues which are pertinent to their own respective states’. He went on to say that ‘since Nagaland is safe from the influx of immigrants due to the revised Bill’, the people of the state have no reason to worry.
He also asserted that as an MP from the state, he is for the interest of the people of the state; ‘to protect and have priority of the people—to solve the problem, and not create them’.
He repeatedly mentioned that there is a difference between the CAB of 2016 and the CAB of 2019; and said, “They’ve (NPF) not read the 2019 Bill.”
On Thursday, the NPF’s Disciplinary Action Committee had asked its two MPs, Kenye and Dr. Lorho S Pfoze, to explain within seven days their voting in favour of the then Citizenship Amendment Bill.
As of Friday, Kenye was the only one to respond.