Dimapur, July 27 (EMN): Observing that Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu has gone from donning the hats of chief minister as well as NPF president, to that of fortune-teller, the NDPP has asserted that the veteran politician’s prediction of an NDPP downfall will fall flat.
“Perhaps the octogenarian of the NPF party has suddenly woken up from a deep slumber since the whole state is witness to how the NDPP has been growing from strength to strength over the months,” the NDPP stated in a press release.
The accusation of ‘greed and power mongering’ within the NDPP was simply, it stated, Liezietsu voicing his own morals and principles. “It was not long ago when the people of the state bore witness to the magnanimity of the members of the 12th House in making Dr. Liezietsu the Chief Minister of Nagaland even though he was not an elected representative.
“What followed was a tenure rife with corruption, nepotism, tribalism not forgetting the greed for power. He had the audacity to appoint his own son as the advisor to chief minister and if this does not spell nepotism, then what does? The people of the state also saw how he desperately tried to cling on to the chair of the chief minister despite the majority of the elected members revoking their support to his leadership,” read the statement.
Despite promising to function as chief minister for only a few months, it stated, Liezietsu “made a fool of everyone when he decided to contest the by-elections to the 10th Northern Angami-II assembly constituency” left vacant by his son in 2017.
“This is proof enough of his hunger for power since his intention was never to give up the chair, but to remain as the chief minister. Today this very same person is accusing the NDPP of being greedy and power mongers, when it is him who was unceremoniously removed as the chief minister by the governor, perhaps becoming the only chief minister of the state to have that misnomer,” it stated.
It was greed that led to the downfall of NPF-led DAN government from a position of absolute power under an opposition-less government to the role of an opposition, the NDPP stated. “And today, when a few of their elected representatives have voiced their appreciation towards genuine development and progress in the state as is witnessed in any healthy form of democracy, the NPF leadership has instead accused them of anti-party activities and have even gone to the extent of filing disqualification petitions against some of them. In such a scenario, it is a wonder as to who is on the brink of downfall. The NDPP or the NPF?!”
Again, it reminded the NPF chief that he had single-handedly managed to deregister the party and freeze the cock symbol from the Election Commission of India, which required the intervention and help of none other than the present Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, “whom he incidentally stabbed on the back later, to revive the cock symbol and the party!”
It suggested the NPF leadership to stop living on its past glory and wake up to the realities that threaten its very existence.
It also reminded the Rajya Sabha MP and the Secretary General of NPF KG Kenye that it was Rio who had made it possible for the NPF-led DAN to rule the state for 15 successive years. “If Mr. Neiphiu Rio had not come to the rescue of the NPF in 2002-03, perhaps we would be reading a different story. The NPF as a responsible political party should be magnanimous enough to give credit where it is deserved.”
On the MP’s claim that NPF members have been ‘approached through the backdoor with offer of power’, the NDPP stated that he should oblige the people by revealing “what he means by backdoor since the NDPP and PDA always maintain an open-door policy which is the front door.”
It stated that the NDPP is not a party that follows the policy of opportunism, as has been the case of the NPF in the past.
“Despite the opposition raising criticisms over the policies of the NDPP-led PDA government, the NDPP has decided not to react as we believe in the importance of the role of an opposition in a democratic system of government. However, the NDPP will not remain mute when none other than the president of the NPF makes absurd allegations and predictions when it is well known that he is trying to unload his misdeeds on the NDPP, the PDA government and its leaders.
“We are confident that the people of the state will not be beguiled by the lies and fabricated statements of the NPF party and its leaders,” read the statement.
