Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 19 (EMN): After having faced continuous volleys of denigration from rival Naga People’s Front (NPF) for the past three months, the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) has finally retorted by asking the NPF to retrospect its own past and quit playing politics on religious lines.
Breaking its silence over the opposition NPF’s incessant barrage of venom, the NDPP on Saturday snapped. It simply asked the opposition NPF to play politics based on ideologies, principles and strengths; not on religious references.
Rubbishing the claim of the opposition, led by its leader TR Zeliang, of instability in the PDA government, NDPP spokesperson Merentoshi R Jamir told journalists here this evening that there was absolutely no such thing and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio enjoys the support of 33 legislators who are part of the PDA.
With regard to the questions raised by the NPF as to why Rio had resigned from the parliament to return to state politics, Jamir cited that the erstwhile DAN governments (I, II and III) have been successful under Rio’s leadership. “Since there was stability in governance in the state, he (Rio) decided that he should go and represent the Naga people in the parliament and speak for them, especially on the Indo-Naga issue. But the moment he left, the state plunged into crisis after crisis,” he stated.
During the last four years, he pointed out that except for “crisis and Kaziranga trips”, the government had failed to deliver to the people; the public suffered; development in the state suffered. In view of this, he said there was a need for a strong leadership to take over the reins, therefore, Rio along with the NDPP came together, to form a government and a stable government was in power.
On the NPF attacking the PDA partner BJP, he said that it was quite surprising as till recently, the BJP was very much a partner of the NPF-led DAN coalition since 2003. But today, just because the NPF could not form an alliance with the BJP, they are going ahead and attacking the BJP, Jamir asserted.
He recalled that the NPF president Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu had, on 28 June 2017, at a party meeting in Arunachal Pradesh, proudly spoke of the NPF and BJP association as dating back to 1977 when the latter was called Jan Sangh. However, he pointed out that when the NPF crisis occurred the following month, where legislators decided to change leadership and bring back Zeliang as chief minister, the NPF led by Liezietsu had decided to sever its ties with the BJP on July 19, 2017 and had gone to the extent of even organising a ‘beef feast’.
Thereafter, Jamir stated the NPF made desperate attempts to restore the alliance with the BJP and after several flip-flops, the then chief minister Zeliang met national BJP president Amit Shah on January 25, 2018 after the NPF CEC at an emergency meeting held on January 23 last resolved to revoke its decision to snap ties with the BJP and continue the alliance.
“But the BJP, having realised that the NDPP reflected the aspirations of the masses and having understood that the NDPP enjoyed popular support announced its decision to have a pre-poll alliance with the NDPP at Guwahati on February 3rd, 2018,” he pointed out. Having failed to secure an alliance with the BJP, despite desperate attempts, he said the NPF president and his colleagues became critical of the BJP and started playing the communal card.
“Today they (NPF) are calling the BJP a Hindu party, they are calling NDPP an anti-Christian party. Now if they consider the BJP a Hindu party, then what were they doing with the BJP over the last 15 years? Or as they recall, since 1977?” the NDPP spokesperson questioned.
“We are not playing religious politics. We are playing party politics, according to the ideologies of the party, the strengths of a party and not on religious lines,” he added, while expressing that this was a very negative aspect that the NPF is bringing into the state today, to polarise on religious lines.
Dismissing NPF’s claim as the only regional party in the state, Jamir said NPF was talking as if it had never allied with national parties whereas for the last 15 years it was in coalition with BJP, and also came together with the NCP and JD (U) as well, which were all national parties.
He suggested that instead of playing ‘all these games’, the NPF should look at their own kitchen and their past before making any comments against the NDPP and PDA.
On the criticism from NPF with regard to appointment of three party functionaries with cabinet status and 10 others with minister of state status, Jamir said their appointment comes without any privileges or facilities unlike NPF and previous DAN functionaries whose president and chairman were given the status of a chief minister. Their appointment was made based on the need that they required certain status to be able to approach central leaders, not to give them facilities. Therefore the claim that the state exchequer would be burdened was false, he added.
Regarding the claim made by Zeliang that the PDA was taking credit of the fund roped in by the DAN government in 2017 to the tune of INR 283 cr for VDBs under MGNREGA, Jamir asserted that whether Zeliang or Rio brought the fund, it was meant for the Naga people and a government was there to utilise it for the people.
On the claim that NPF under Zeliang will stake claim to form government on grounds that NPF was the single largest party, Jamir said the NDPP and the BJP had a pre-poll alliance with a seat sharing arrangement of 40:20 and had secured 40.51% of votes polled while NPF who contested in all the 60 seats managed to win only 26 seats which polled 38% of votes. Therefore, the question of NPF being the single largest party does not arise, and the PDA government with post-poll partners JD (U), NPP and one independent MLA has the glaring majority with 34 members had formed the government.
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