Telegraph
New Delhi, March 8: As Congress MP Mani Kumar Subba struggles to prove his Indian citizenship, a National Security Act detainee in Nagaland has claimed he is the parliamentarian’s brother. Ajay Kumar Subba was arrested by Nagaland police and detained under NSA with an unlicensed 9 mm pistol and cartridges on January 20. Ajay is the leader of the Gorkha Liberation Army in Dimapur and is currently lodged in Dimapur central jail with an accomplice.
In the wake of the ongoing controversy surrounding Subba, the rebel’s claim has added to the Tezpur MP’s headache. Subba is accused of being a Nepali citizen and forging documents to be elected to the Lok Sabha. Before becoming an MP from Tezpur, he was a legislator in the Assam Assembly. If the rebel’s claim proves to be true, the MP might be in deeper trouble than just having to prove his citizenship. The GLA allegedly has militant links with Ulfa. Besides, its presence in Dimapur has forced security agencies to suspect its links with the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) as well.
Dimapur, being a stronghold of the Naga outfit, other militant groups of the region can operate in the town only with the NSCN’s “permission”.
Subba confirmed that he has a brother named Ajay, but clarified that the one lodged in Dimapur jail was not his sibling. “That Ajay is from Darjeeling and not my brother. His arrest has nothing to do with me and even the ongoing controversy will not affect me,” he said over phone. Subba said he would file a defamation suit against a news channel that aired a news item against him.
There is a case pending against him in Supreme Court where the MP has to prove his nationality. “It is an old case since 1998 and I have evidence,” he said. Subba claimed that he was the “number one” MP in Assam and the party “knows I am innocent”. When the Lok Sabha met this morning, the BJP sought to raise the matter of Subba’s nationality, but Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said he had received no intimation from the party on the matter.
Subba today also approached Union information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and sought to speak in Parliament. Over the next two days, the Tezpur MP is likely to give his side of the story on the “nationality controversy” on the floor of Parliament.
