NDPP is ‘Verba Non Facta,’ taunts NPF

NDPP is ‘Verba Non Facta,’ taunts NPF

NDPP is ‘Verba Non Facta,’ taunts NPF

Kohima, October 12 (MExN): In a counter rejoinder, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) today advised the ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)  to either stick to its motto or to avoid the same altogether in order to avoid further humiliation.


“Actions speak louder than words” and if the correlated adage ‘Facta Non Verba’- motto of the NDPP Party- was any indication to the utter failure of the NDPP led Government during the almost 2 years, the better suited Latin phrase would be just the opposite- ‘Verba Non Facta.’ This was because of the fact that the NDPP led Government till date has been “all words and no deeds,” said a press release from the NPF.


Stating that the ruling NDPP has no dignity as a political party, the NPF insisted that “diverting issues and shifting blames on to others have become the professional trademark of NDPP.”


On the NDPP questioning the Leader of Opposition, TR Zeliang, the then Chief Minister on what he was doing in 2016, when the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was being formulated in Parliament, it said that the said Bill was “proposed in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016 and referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on August 12, 2016 when the present Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio was the Lok Sabha MP representing NPF Party from May 2014 to February 2018.”


“Therefore, when Neiphiu Rio himself was the lone Lok Sabha MP representing the NPF Party at that point of time, how can the blame be shifted to the NPF Party today? This is like spitting at one’s own face. If not for facilitating such affairs between his people and the Parliament, what otherwise was the purpose of Rio representing the Naga people at the Lok Sabha?”


As the MP from the NPF Party representing Nagaland, it was his bounden duty to have consulted the State Government back home while taking into confidence the voice of the Naga people since the said Bill was referred to the JPC which took over a year, the NPF held.


“However, Neiphiu Rio failed to do this because he was ignorant of what was going on in the Parliament during his tenure. Moreover, he was spending sleepless nights master-minding crisis, one after another, to topple the then NPF led DAN Government in the State,” 


While acknowledging that Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland has Inner Line Permit (ILP) and Meghalaya has Entry and Exit points, however, despite all these provisions and measures, many leaders in the North East states protested against CAB which included Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya; Zoramthanga, Chief Minister of Mizoram and Biren Singh, Chief Minister of Manipur, the NPF mainatined.


It went on to declare instances of the three Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leaders who even resigned as State Ministers over the controversy on CAB after they tendered their resignations to Assam Chief Minister.


Despite all the hue and cry, Rio “stubbornly refused to budge from his naïve belief that Nagaland was protected from CAB under Article-371(A) and ILP.”


“Does this imply that his counterparts in other NE States were raising alarms out of a non-issue or was it Neiphiu Rio who rather failed to understand the reality?” the NPF posed.


“If we really mean to uphold Article-371(A), we should raise our voice before any contentious Bill is passed so that exemption of the Bill can be incorporated in the said Bill.”


Maintaining that effective governance was based on how a Government conducts public affairs and manage public resources, the NPF regretted the approach of the NDPP led Government which was built on ‘words and not deeds.’
“When NDPP preach of ‘Development for all, together with all,’ it must understand that governance and development also means the right and the means to examine the process of decision making and the responsibility of being able to provide details of actions taken,” it argued.


“On the contrary, the NDPP Party has been avoiding the queries put forward by the NPF Party, both inside and outside the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, except for political rhetoric which the NDPP Party has no dearth of,” it said.