DIMAPUR, JUNE 18 (MExN): Former Chief Minister of Nagaland and incumbent Governor of Goa has clarified to the allegation made by Kughalu Mulatonu of the NSCN (K) who claimed that SC Jamir, while he was the Chief Minister of Nagaland, had given Rs 12 crore to the NSCN (IM).
“This ridiculous allegation had been made earlier too, and His Excellency had made it categorically clear that no such transaction had taken place between himself and Mr VS Atem who was supposed to have taken the money on the eve of the 1998 General Assembly elections”, stated a press communiqué issued by Sebastian Zumvu, Officer on Special Duty to the Governor of Goa.
“To keep the records straight”, the statement pointed out, Jamir had on a number of occasions, gone to the extent of saying that Mr Atem is innocent and completely above board as far as this allegation is concerned.
“It is pertinent to mention here that when His Excellency was the Chief Minister of Nagaland in the period 1998 – 2003, the NDA was in power at the Centre and was not too friendly with the Congress Government in Nagaland. Records available with the Government of Nagaland will show that the then NDA Government kept the Government of Nagaland on a hand to mouth subsistence. There were even instances of the NDA Government rejecting Nagaland Government’s application for loans amounting to not more than Rs 5 crore! Now then, where is the question of the then Chief Minister or Government for that matter, paying any individual or organization Rs 12 crore? And that too, illegally?”, it stated.
Jamir stated that Mulatonu, being a senior functionary and leader of an organization professed to be struggling for the cause of the Naga people should be more cautious and responsible while making statements, it stated.
“He should desist from making ridiculous allegations against any political leader or personality just for the sake of grabbing headlines in the news which would only be the proverbial flash in the pan. Making such allegation devoid of any truth or substance is unbecoming of any leader and demeans the organization he or she belongs to”, it added.
