Morung Express News Dimapur | April 8 Three days after the Press Secretary to Leader of the Opposition, TR Zeliang, threatened of legal recourse, Swarajya magazine on Sunday issued ‘sincere apologies’ to the former Chief Minister on its website. On behalf of Zeliang, the Press Secretary had demanded a clarification and apology regarding a news item before April 8, 6 PM. A right wing magazine, Swarajya had published an article on April 2 titled “NIA’s Naga Terror Funding Probe Reveals Insidious Role Of Top Bureaucrats, Politicians And Church Elders,” wherein it had indicted the Church and top politicians in Nagaland – including the former Chief Minister – of having aided the NSCN (K) in collecting taxes. The article written by the magazine’s Associate Editor, Jaideep Mazumdar had quoted an “NIA officer” while accusing Zeliang of being “personally involved in the collection of taxes on behalf of the NSCN (K).” It also carried quotes attributed to two unnamed officers of the Army substantiating the accusations. As per the article, one was specified as stationed at the 3 Corps’ Rangapahar Cantonment, Dimapur and the other as based in Kohima attached to the Assam Rifles. The Morung Express broke the news of the allegations while questioning its veracity, in print in Nagaland on April 4. When contacted by The Morung Express, the 3 Corps, also known as the Spear Corps, stated that no such information was provided to the writer of the article or “anyone else.” “All such claims in the said article are incorrect,” it had clarified. Thereafter, on April 5, the Press Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition refuted the allegations. Terming it “a direct challenge” to the former CM’s “integrity and honour,” the rebuttal demanded apology from the publisher through leading print, electronic and social media, including in the magazine, or else face legal recourse. Swarajya came out with an apology on April 8. “While checking and verifying the sources, we found that much of what was stated in the article was not true,” the apology read. As such, it informed that the article has been taken down from the website and deleting it from Google’s cache. “Swarajya sincerely apologises to T R Zeliang, leader of the opposition in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, for any aspersions that the article may have cast on his honour and integrity,” it added. The Swarajya article had also made damning indictments against the Church in Nagaland. “The church collects money on behalf of the terror outfits and routes the amount collected to them, but also benefits from the extortion since it gets to retain a part of the sum collected for its activities, including evangelization,” the article had stated quoting an “Army officer on deputation to the Assam Rifles and posted at the Assam Rifles (North) headquarters in Kohima.” Refuting the allegations, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) had come out with a statement on April 7 terming the allegations as “baseless and an outright insult to the sanctity of the church.” The Naga People’s Front (NPF) had also issued a statement on April 4 censuring the report and stating, “This is a ridiculous allegation and would have been most amusing if not for the gravity of the claim.” This is not the first time the author of the article has attracted a controversy. An expose by Alt News – a fact checking news website – in August 2017, revealed that Mazumdar had made false claims in another report titled “It’s a crying shame that ‘The Butcher Of Bengal’ has a road named after him in Kolkata.” “The author of article Jaideep Mazumdar had claimed that Suhrawardy Avenue in Kolkata was named after Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy while it was actually named after Sir Hassan Suhrawardy. Swarajya has now put out an apology regarding the same,” Alt News reported. During the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) election crisis in February 2017, the author in an article titled “Nagaland Unrest: It’s A Diabolic Congress-Church Conspiracy,” had alleged that the unrest was stoked by the opposition Congress and the Church to dislodge the then government.
