Dimapur, December 19 (MExN): Even as condemnation and justification pourn in from different political quarters in the state regarding the disqualification of 12 votes by the NLA speaker on December 13, the newly flouted Nagaland People’s Alliance (NPA) submitted a memorandum to the President of India demanding the immediate dismissal of the present DAN Government.
The Nagaland People’s Alliance (NPA) which was formed on December 13 by the opposition Congress party with the dissident DAN Government MLAs in the state, met with Prathiba Patil, and submitted a memorandum to the President of India to intervene in the matter of what it called ‘undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional continuance of the minority government of Nagaland under Article 356 of the Constitution of India’.
The NPA memorandum to the President of India signed by Opposition Leader, I Imkong, which was also recieved here, stated that the NLA Speaker, in collusion with the Chief Minister, ‘unconstitutionally’ disallowed 3 independent MLAs from casting votes even though they were permitted to take part in other proceedings; besides, the votes of nine dissident DAN MLAs who voted in favour of the No Confidence Motion by the Congress was not counted; thereby violating all democratic norms, constitutional provision and Nagaland Legislative Assembly rules.
“If the Whip is defied by the 9 MLAs, the Disqualification proceedings can be initiated against them only after the voting takes place and counted and not before that. Even in that case, the Rules and Procedures will have to be followed by the Speaker as prescribed by the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and the Assembly Rules prescribed thereof,” Imkong pointed out.
The memorandum lamented that no action was taken by the Governor or the Union Government till December 14, even after the 31 MLAs physically presented themselves before the Governor of Nagaland and sought dismissal of the ‘minority Government’ and staked claim to form the new Government.
Imkong added that the 31 MLAs have even sent representations to the Union Home Minister for immediate intervention and dismissal of the minority Government; however, even after six days, no action has been taken to dismiss the ‘minority, illegal and undemocratic Government in Nagaland’.
In this connection, Imkong strongly urged the Indian president, as the Custodian of the Constitution of India to intervene and exercise her powers vested under Article 356 of the Constitution of India dismiss the DAN Government without further delay.
Imkong stated that a situation has arisen in Nagaland that the Government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution of India and added that allowing the present DAN Government to continue in office will be a subversion of the Constitution of India
In the wake of this political development in the state, one noted academician, having a Doctorate in Naga political studies, commented that the best possible way out of the present situation is the imposition of President’s Rule in the state.
He said that according to the Anti-Defection Law, the NLA Speaker should have given a show cause notice to the dissident legislators, a procedure which was not followed. Further, the Independent MLAs have the privilege to support or withdraw their support to the government. Therefore, he called the action of the Speaker as a ‘gross injustice’. However, the academician added that even the Congress party do not have the majority to stake claim of forming the government, so the PR is the only way solution under Article 356 and 371 (D) of the Indian Constitution.
However, the most interesting part of the present political drama is the resignation of the legislators after alleging serious cases of corruption in the DAN Government.
The academician, who is more of a political analyst, commented that corruption does not spring out all of a sudden, so; the dissident MLAs were more or less a part of the serious corruption cases, he opined. In this regard, the analyst said that the resignation of the MLAs might be due to some ulterior motives which are not in the interest of the people.
Elaborating on the word ulterior, the analyst said that everyone has been aware that there is a fair chance for the Congress party to come back to power in the next election; and since the MLAs would always want to be in the ruling government, they decided to move out from the DAN government.
On the other hand, the analyst said that the Congress will face a ‘serious problem’ with regard to the allocation of party tickets since the dissidents MLAs will want to contest the election on INC tickets. No wonder, the local dailies have been filled with local Congress units petitioning the High command to consider their opinion while allocating the tickets.
The analyst said that since politics is all about power, and political parties think about the ‘win-ablity’ of the candidates, the Congress have no option but to issue the party tickets to the dissidents MLA, even though they might face the ire of the dedicated Congress workers at the grass-root level. The DAN Government on the other hand can allot to NPF tickets to al the congress dissidents, he said.
However, despite all the political dramas that is going on, the analyst asserted that ‘money and muscle power’ will play a big role in the next election just like any other elections in the past years. “Money and muscle power will definitely play a big role. That is the irony of election in Nagaland,” he sighed.
