We are vindicated, says Shürhozelie-led NPF citing TN

Dimapur, August 30 (MExN): The Shürhozelie-led Naga People’s Front today claimed the Governor C Vidyasagar Rao’s refusal to intervene in a leadership tussle in Tamil Nadu hinting it to be an ‘intra-party affair’ of the political party AIADMK as a vindication of its stand in Nagaland.

The different ‘ball game’ being unveiled, albeit with the same theme intra-party affairs of a political party in the distant South is a vindication of what we have been crying hoarse ever since the Governor hastily toppled Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu’s Government on July 19 last, claimed the NPF Media & Press Bureau, NPF, Central Headquarters in a press statement.

In Tamil Nadu, four prominent Opposition leaders representing CPI (M), CPI, VCK and MMK, jointly appealed to the Governor to resolve the ‘prevailing political uncertainty, instability’ in the State by convening the State Legislative Assembly urgently and to let Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy (EPS) prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly through a Motion of Confidence, it said.

However, the Governor said he cannot intervene in the issue of 19 AIADMK “rebels” as they “continue to be AIADMK party members,” the statement noted. Indicating that such move is a complete contrast to the one taken by the Nagaland Governor PB Acharya in the current NPF leadership tussle, the statement said, “In Nagaland, Governor Acharya took the intra-party affairs of the NPF party to the Floor of the Assembly by asking the then Chief Minister Dr Shürhozelie to prove his majority in the Assembly even though the revolt was from the NPF legislators only, and the rebel legislators still continued to be members of the NPF at that point of time.”

Acharya also maintained a “deafening silence” when on July 21, the Speaker of Nagaland Assembly “shockingly” accepted two whips of the NPF party – one belonging to Kiyanilie Peseyie as appointed by the NPF on November 14, 2014, and the other whip belonging to TR Zeliang, appointed by the rebel legislators, it said. It was without the approval, knowledge and sanction of the political party they belonged to, it added. The party also accused Acharya of being a “mute spectator” when democratic and parliamentary norms were “shredded to pieces” by the Speaker of NLA.