The political journey of Shri. K. Therie, is of recent with his first entry into Nagaland Legislative Assembly in 1993. He enjoyed maximum during his one decade stint as cabinet Minister for two successive terms under the patronage of the then Chief Minister Dr. S.C. Jamir, the present Governor of Odisha till he was ultimately expelled under NPCC President-ship of Dr. S.C. Jamir, who held both posts at that time. While serving as PHE Minister from 1993 to 1998, he left one indelible mark for his water supply to Kohima Town. Duping both New Delhi and Citizens of Kohima town by laying C.I. Pipe all along the National High Ways from Phesama to Viswema, Therie transported back all those pipes to Dimapur for disposal at depreciated rate. That irked New Delhi and till today, the people of Kohima have to struggle every dry season for want of drinking water.
Mr. Therie, being fond to be over smart and all wise, issued a press statement in the media that so long as Mrs. Sonia Gandhi leads the party, Congress would never come back to power in the country. He was caught red-handed to be anti-congress and for which the party expelled him at one go in 2002 by the AICC itself as he was an AICC member at that time. After all, a shrewd politician as he always assumes, his prediction came true that Congress stormed back to power in 2004 Lok Sabha election under the leadership of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who declined to be the Prime Minister of India though offered.Mr. K. Therie then joined the regional party NPF in 2003. He condemned Congress to the hilt on the issue of the booklet published by NPCC called the ‘Bedrock of Naga Society’. He connived with all sort of elements and defeated Congress in 2003 State Assembly election. He did his best to decimate Congress in that year. He then became Finance minister under the former Chief Minister, N. Rio, when the then Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayi visited Kohima in Oct’ 2003 and granted Rs. 365 crore to Nagaland for clearing the outstanding liabilities. K. Therie, miserably failed to maintain transparency and could not produce ‘white paper’ on the expenditure of Rs. 365 crore which was demanded by congress and including his own party leaders. On corruption charges, his friend than C.M. N. Rio, dropped him from Ministry and he was again expelled from NPF.
Mr. K. Therie is one politician in the contemporary Nagaland politics who used to be kicked around by the party he joins. Mr. K. Therie, then rejoined Congress in 2007 on the eve of 2008 State Assembly election. He managed to misguide AICC leaders due to which wrong Congress candidates in few constituencies were picked up and as a result Congress had to sit in opposition for the second time in 2008. In 2003, he destroyed Congress as NPF member and in 2007 he fatally injured congress as Congressman.
The AICC appointed K. Therie as NPCC President on Adhoc basis in May, 2015 to strengthen and rebuild the party. However, look at how K. Therie is rampantly destroying the remnants of Congressman in Nagaland. For obvious reasons, the 8 Congress MLAs had to be part of T.R. Zeliang’s ministry. Much in advance, Congress leaders including K. Therie was consulted. Meeting of leaders were held several time to study the merits and demerits of joining the coalition Govt. Though few members had second thought, absolute majority favored the participation including K. Therie who suggested having the Common Minimum Programme and accordingly submitted his own draft for inclusion in the same. Yet, Mr. K. Therie has a trade mark as liar, never hesitate to brew and tell lies. For instance, the principle reason for him to file Disqualification petition against 8 Congress MLAs (originally), later on rectified to 7 MLAs on the advice of the Assembly Secretariat, was the allegation that these MLAs have already submitted a letter to Hon’ble Speaker, NLA for merger into NPF. To this allegation, the Assembly Secretariat through RTI query had replied in negative vide: No. AS/LIB/8/2006/655 dt. 28.9.2015. Can any mentally fit and sensible leaders file such petition on falsehood?
Mr. K. Therie as Adhoc President, assumed the office in May, 2015 only. During these few months he has dissolved, shuffled and reorganized few ACCCs, DCCs and NPCC in total contravention to the provisions of the Congress Party’s Constitution. Since, the reorganization process of the party has been on; no such reshuffle or so called strengthening the party is permissible without taking specific permission from AICC for revamp. The decision itself proves that all those exercise of so called ‘strengthening’ have no validity of party’s constitution.
Today, the NPCC Adhoc President, Mr. K. Therie has no political agenda and he has no knowledge of how to speak for the welfare of the people of the state. Theoretically, he asserts that he leads the opposition party, and yet he has no idea or lost confidence to speak befitting his assertion. Vertually, he is in political oblivion. Infact, he has no better political agenda except to disqualify those 8 elected Congress MLAs and to dismantle Congress party to ashes. During the last 5 months, Mr. Therie has created more enemies within and outside than building relationships. His temporary appointment as NPCC President is to destroy Congress Party in Nagaland in haste and accordingly suspended 20 Congress veterans. He believes in the philosophy of ‘I’ and for him the word ‘WE’, ‘OURS’ and ‘US’ vocabularies never exist.
I am not surprised that Mr. K. Therie has been in a hurry to finish Congress Partyt in Nagaland in short span of time; after all he is pro-BJP. The committed Congress soldiers therefore, voiced their dissent on 24.9.2015 at Congress Bhavan, Kohima in the presence of AICC representatives was indicative enough that K. Therie does not command majority. The reaction of the people of the congress on this day was nothing short of asking him to resign on moral ground.
Nevertheless, the true Congress men and women cannot allow Mr. K. Therie destroying Congress party in Nagaland by so called “President in Sheep’s Clothing”. I therefore, earnestly call upon the committed Congress party workers to stand united and never to be confused by the lies and rumors spread around by K. Therie.
