Kohima, 22 October: The ire of the Naga People’s Front over the inaction of the Speaker of Nagaland Legislative Assembly over several political issues erupted today with several hundreds of party workers, led by its President Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu, courting arrest in front of the Civil Secretariat today.
The Party youth wing had written to the district administration seeking permission to hold a peaceful dharna but the request was denied and this led to the Party President alongwith several party MLAs and senior party functionaries daring the administration to arrest them for holding a peaceful and democratic agitation seeking early and timely resolution to what it considered as gross violations of the Constitution.
The issues at hand were the cases of the disqualification petitions filed against 36 wayward NPF legislators who defied the whip issued by the Chief Whip of the party on July 21, 2017, recognition of Kuzholuzo Nienu as the Leader of the NPF Legislature Party in the Assembly, and recognition of the Chief Whip of the NPF party.
Addressing the first day of the indefinite dharna, president NPF and MLA Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu asserted that the protest will be peaceful but that “if anyone provokes, then the party will also give a befitting reply.”
Dr. Shürhozelie castigated the district administration for not granting permission for the peaceful dharna saying the Dharna shall not create any unwanted situation as the party workers intend to demonstrate the democratic rights of the people.
The former Chief Minister, Dr. Shürhozelie also challenged the administration to arrest him first and not the party workers if the peaceful Dharna was found wrong adding “Nagas cannot be threatened and treated like this.”
He doubted whether the central government was aware of the entire situation happening in Nagaland including the installation of unconstitutional government and questioned if the Centre would blindly believe in any thing that was illegal.
However, he said if central government has the knowledge and sitting over the issue then this will be “a wakeup call for the Nagas to think and plan seriously for the future of the State.”
He said the protest was “a people’s movement to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution of India” and that the people would “join the movement to protect the rights of the people of Nagaland.”
DAN chairman and NPF legislature party leader Kuzholuzo Nienu said NLA Speaker must wake up and start performing his duties stating the protest was a result of speaker’s inaction on the various issues.
Azo said criminals or offenders were scared of the long arms of laws and said the government was so naïve, shallow and narrow-minded that it is afraid of its own shadow which showed that those running the Government are wrong and are not comfortable.
The chairman also accused the NLA speaker stating that his behavior was unbecoming and said inspite of the party awarding him (Speaker) the highest chair, he chose to ignore the party workers to even enter his office when they tried to submit the memorandum.
He also questioned the response of the Speaker on the memorandum served by NPF Youth wing which came from Chief Minister’s office (CMO) and said CMO and NLA are different entities.
Azo said whatever complaint was raised to the NLA speaker, complaint went to CMO, only showed the incapability of the Speaker and that he the Speaker does not know how to function his office.
He questioned whether it was a dictatorial style of functioning or whether CM has taken over NLA office as well.
Azo said if this continues, the protest would be intensified and will even start demanding for removal of the Speaker stating that the party workers were running out of patience.
He also appealed the Court to deliver justice at the earliest.
NPF legislature spokesperson, Yitachu said rule of law should control the state, the government and the systems and it was the duty and responsibility of every authority in the government to follow the rule of law.
He said the unconstitutional government was giving justifications only in the newspapers and is running away from the Court by seeking adjournments and postponements only.
Yitachu said a dictatorial style of government should not be allowed to runveven for a day and said as a concerned political party, it will not silently watch the government destroy the society.
He said as per the assembly rules, all the issues must have settled within a month however he said even after lapse of three months NLA speaker has not given order including the order on chief whip replacing Late Kiyianelie Peseyie.
Yitachu said if such wrong doings were not put to stop, then future generation would be greatly affected and expressed confidence that this “step” (dharna) would bring out “the truth” to the Nagas.
This Press Release was sent by NPF Bureau, who can be contacted at npfpressbureau(at)rediffmail(dot)com.
