Our Correspondent
Kohima, August 28 (EMN): In continuation of the war of words between two groups of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) legislators—one for Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu and the other for Neiphiu Rio and TR Zeliang—senior executive members of the former on Monday went on a tirade against their rival.
Addressing a press conference at the NPF’s central office in Kohima town, NPF Vice President Zaku Tsukru said that the ‘cock party’ was formed in 1963 ‘not for power or wealth, but solely for the interest of the Naga people and for solution of the Indo-Naga political issue.’
Responding to the rival group’s recent allegation that Liezietsu was not a founding member of the then NPC, Tsukru said: while the party was formed in 1963, Liezietsu became a MLA of the “cock party” in 1969. During such a time, he remarked, Rio and Zeliang ‘might have still been in school.’ He said that Rio and Zeliang had joined the party only in 2002. He went on to question how they could now challenge Liezietsu as not being a founding member of the party.
“In 2002, when they came to join this party, Shürhozelie was one of the senior-most members of the party. Only two persons, the then president and the secretary general were above him,” Tsukru said. He alleged that Rio and his group had joined the “cock party” to ‘save their face’ and they had asked to change the nomenclature of the party which was Naga People’s Council then, also, to ‘save their face.’ He recalled also that the then party President Huska Sumi refused change of the party’s name. ‘Just to accommodate Rio and Zeliang’s group, the party had to make its president step down and then changed its name to Nagaland People’s Front.’
“But that does not mean that Neiphiu and TR Zeliang founded the NPF. This party was there long before they were aware of these political matters. They were still in primary schools or in high school…. Now they are claiming that Shürhozelie was not a party to the formation of the NPF. How foolish are they?” Zaku Tsukru remarked.
The senior NPF member also asserted that Rio and Zeliang had, after joining the NPF, turned it into a “money and power oriented political party” and created confusion with the objectives of the party. He maintained that the two had now accommodated ‘all sorts of people who are only for power and money’, such as former bureaucrats, engineers, doctors, people who have no basic idea of politics. This, he said, was the reason why people were made to understand that politics is only for power and money, forgetting about political principle.
Tsukru categorically stated that all the 34 NPF MLAs along with ‘undisciplined party workers’ now stood expelled and they are no longer members of NPF nor do they have any right to claim NPF as their party. “They are expelled, suspended. Let the Naga public know from today onwards, never say that Neiphiu and TR Zeliang’s group is NPF members. They are party-less men, party-less workers,” he retorted.
Also clarifying on the history of the “cock party,” NPF Spokesperson Achumbemo Kikon said that the party was not formed to ‘fulfil some individual interest but that it dates back to the peak of the turmoil in the state.’ He pointed out that the party was formed as the Democratic Party of Nagaland (DPN) to uphold the interest of the Nagas, and had gone through changes in nomenclature along with the change in time. Stating that though the party had changed its name 9 times in total so far, Kikon said the party’s symbol, motto and flag, and its aims and objectives have remained unchanged.
He reminded that staying true to its objective, the party’s 12 MLAs decided to resign en-bloc when the first ceasefire between the government of India and the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) was signed in 1964, in the view that there was no necessity of continuing of holding the fort since the party’s objective was to bridge the gap between the two warring groups.
On the party getting derecognized in 1998 during Liezietsu’s tenure as president for boycotting the assembly elections that year, Kikon said that was the year it had been a turning point for the Nagas as the NSCN (IM) and the government of India had entered into a ceasefire, while elections were due in early 1998 then. Naga civil society led by the Naga Hoho had appealed to all the political parties to refrain from participating in the 1998 state election and give an opportunity to the negotiations to carry forward.
He recalled that the congress party had gone forward to participate in the election despite the call made by the Nagas for the cause of the Naga people and amongst those who went ahead defying the call of the Naga people were Rio, Zeliang and ‘their group’. He stated the cock party had responded to the call and chose to sacrifice even its symbol for the cause of the Nagas. Subsequently, he added, the Election Commission of India froze the party symbol. And in the following year, Liezietsu who was the party president then, had resigned from his post and had contested in the Rajya Sabha election as an independent candidate with a bus symbol just to regain the cock party symbol. Although Liezietsu lost the election, he said, he managed to win 32% votes while the required percentage was only 6, and automatically the party got back its recognition and symbol.
He said in the early 2000 the publication of the ‘Bedrock of Naga Society’ boomeranged the congress party and ‘Rio and his group’ in a bid to “save their soul” and come out of the political quagmire, and approached the cock party in search of ‘shelter’. “The cock party was gracious enough to accommodate them and they were given leadership. Had Dr. Shürhozelie and some other leaders not been there to carry on the torch of this party symbol, flag and party office, there would have been no party to save them (Rio and group). They were politically lost, and this party saved them. They should be courageous enough to acknowledge that,” Kikon stated. He said that it was the ‘cock party’ that not only ‘saved Rio and his group’s political careers, but also promoted them by giving them opportunities to occupy even the chief minister’s post.’
On the ongoing issue, Kikon said it is just a small ‘party hiccup’ and asserted that the party will sail through it in no time.
He stated he had apprehension that the so-called opposition-less government of this tenure would also complete its tenure like the 1998 government which ruled full term with all the members in the ruling except for one Mavil Khieya in the opposition. But now the party is safe as the loyalists have been filtered, he said, expressing that the party would come back strongly into power if solution does not come before 2018 election.
On the allegation from the rival group that Liezietsu had “run away from his bounden duty of proving his majority in the assembly” earlier in July while he was still the chief minister, Kikon said Liezietsu was given barely 10 hours to move for a floor test after the court order. Also, he reiterated that no one had moved a ‘no confidence motion’ or a ‘confidence motion’ and questioned basis on which the governor had called the floor test. Refreshing the party’s allegations that the Governor PB Acharya had connived with TR Zeliang’s group, he stated that the Governor’s chair was a constitutional one and to safeguard everyone, not a group of people.
Maintaining that majority of the MLAs decided to desert the then Chief Minister Liezietsu when he decided to run a ‘clean government’ by checking all kinds of corruption, Kikon questioned if that was the way ‘Naga future’ should continue. He claimed that under Liezietsu as chief minister, the whole system of governance had ‘improved to a large extent and he felt that it was a very unique situation for elected representatives to desert such a leader when there was an improvement in governance.’
On the allegation that Liezietsu’s group have been knocking on the doors of the courts, the spokesperson stated that the NPF party led by Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu ‘believes in the rule of law’; and they will continue the legal battle as they had ‘all the legal rights’ and ‘facts in our favour.’
Another vice president, Pusazo Luruo, also highlighted the changes and the sacrifices that the cock party had made in order to accommodate Rio and ‘his friends’. He also wondered as to why the party MLAs turned their backs on Liezietsu when the latter decided to do good work.
