Kohima, August 19 (MExN): The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) today issued a statement against the backdrop of what it called “baseless accusations” leveled on the Chief Minister TR Zeliang by the Media and Press Bureau of Dr. Shürhozelie’s group. The CMO maintained that Shürhozelie, or for that matter any individual, cannot impose on the decision of the majority elected members to suit their own interest.
Even if Shürhozelie was the president of the NPF Party, whip cannot be issued by him nor can he authorize any other person or authority to issue whip as he himself does not have the power to do so under the NPF Constitution, it stated. “In the entire Constitution of the NPF running into 12 Articles and 7 Schedules, there is no mention about the person or authority that can issue whip for the Party. The President’s Power under Article 1 is only limited to advice to the Legislature Party, which is only recommendatory in nature and not binding. The Constitution of NPF does not confer any express power on Dr. SL to issue whip to any NPF MLA under paragraph 2 (1)(b) of the Tenth Schedule,” it added.
The CMO said that on July 4, TR Zeliang was selected as NPF whip by majority of 34 MLAs which was further supported by 3 more NPF MLAs.
Whip, it stated, is always appointed from among the elected members, a member who enjoys the confidence of the leader of the house, and never chosen or appointed by the party president. “It is for the first time in the history of Nagaland Legislative Assembly that a ruling Party had served a three line whip directing MLAs to vote against its own Leader and also no organisational wing of a political party can issue Whip against the majority decision of the same Legislature Party.”
The statement pointed out that according to Nagaland Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection, Rules 2003, Section 3 (1), only leader of the Legislature Party can intimate the Speaker and so far, there is no instances in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly of any political party, be it opposition or ruling, having direct correspondence with the Speaker.
Stating that as per Article XVI of the NPF Constitution, “any amendment/ alteration/ repeal of the Constitution of the NPF can be done only in the Central General Convention of the party,” it questioned whether the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the NPF empowered Dr. Shürhozelie to change the constitution. “Did the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the NPF empower Dr. SL to alter Article V clause 11 to empower himself to nominate? Did the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of the NPF empower Dr. SL to alter Article XVII, Article VI clause 2; Article IV clause 5 of the NPF Constitution for his own personal advantage? Was this to ‘streamline and achieve an efficient working system’ as portrayed by the so called Media and Press Bureau?”
