DIMAPUR, JULY 19 (MExN): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has condemned the “partisan role played by the Nagaland Governor in installing a government through backdoor without following the due process of parliamentary norms.”
A press note from the NPF Central HQ said that the “haste with which he has acted favouring the RSS-friendly dispensation should be a wake-up call to the Naga people…”
It further alleged that the “presence of RSS functionaries in large number in Nagaland in the last few days should also open the eyes of the Naga people as to what exactly is the ulterior motive behind the present political drama.”
The NPF alleged that the present Governor’s “agenda” could not effectively be fulfilled “so long as the BJP was riding piggy-back on the NPF.” “By aligning with the BJP all these years and playing host to the saffron party, the NPF was successful in containing the agenda of the BJP in Nagaland. As coalition partner, the NPF managed to keep the BJP alive but ensuring that it was barely alive not unlike a florist making bonsai out of a tree,” it added.
The NPF reminded of the BJP’s electoral history in the state by stating: “the BJP won 7 seats in 2003 but later they merged with the NPF. In 2008, 2 BJP candidates returned to the Assembly only to merge again with the NPF. In 2013, only one BJP returned to the House. However, after the BJP victory at the Centre in 2014, 3 NCP MLAs merged with the BJP which was contested by the NPF in the Courts thereby earning the ire of the Lok Sabha MP and former Chief Minister which is in public knowledge.”
It observed that the BJP, buoyed by the Assam and Manipur victories, “plans to repeat another Arunachal experiment in Nagaland.” “But the BJP has another thing coming because its culture and mentality are alien to the Naga people. Without the NPF to cloak it, the BJP would stand fully exposed and its nakedness shall never appeal to the Naga psyche,” the NPF claimed.
It said that the Governor “owes to explain to the people of Nagaland and to his conscience what extenuating circumstances prompted him to support legislators sans party set up this time round when he did exactly the opposite in 2015. Or has he forgotten that in 2015 he did not entertain the NPF dissidents’ plea to dismiss the then so-called “minority” Government of TR Zeliang who then had the sanction and mandate of the party set up?” “The day after the NPF severed ties with the BJP, the Governor dismissed the NPF-led Government! He has shown his true colors for all to see,” the NPF concluded.
