All Naga Eyes on Tamil Nadu

Kohima, August 30, 2017:

In what could be a slap on the face of Nagaland Governor PB Acharya, and also a vindication of what the Naga People’s Front has been crying hoarse ever since the Governor hastily toppled Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu’s Government on July 19 last, in the distant South a totally different ball game is being unveiled, albeit with the same theme: Intra-party affairs of a political Party.

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 Shurhozelie 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.

But in Tamil Nadu, Governor C Vidyasagar Rao told the four Opposition leaders today that he cannot intervene in the issue of 19 AIADMK “rebels” as they “continue to be AIADMK party members”!

The Governor arrived at this stand after four prominent Opposition leaders representing CPI (M), CPI, VCK and MMK, jointly appealed to the Governor today 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.

Rebel MLAs numbering 19, (some claim the figure to have reached 23 this afternoon), from the ruling party AIADMK loyal to Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran withdrew their support to the Chief Minister Palaniswamy which, going by the yardstick applied to Nagaland by Governor Acharya, should have warranted a Vote of Confidence on the floor of the House by the Chief Minister EPS.

In a House of 234 members, after the demise of Jayalalithaa, the number has been reduced to an effective strength of 233 where another member, the Speaker cannot vote, making it mandatory that the ruling dispensation should have at least 117 members supporting it. With the withdrawal of support by 19 MLAs, Chief Minister EPS now enjoys the support of only 115 out of 134 AIADMK MLAs and prima facie, has lost the support of simple majority.

However, Governor of Tamil Nadu C Vidyasagar Rao said the rebels were still members of the ruling AIADMK and refused to intervene, hinting it to be an intra-party affair of the political party AIADMK.

Juxtapose this with the tearing hurry Nagaland Governor was in to topple the Dr Shurhozelie Government on July 19 even though the tussle for leadership was purely an internal affair of the NPF party, and the deafening silence Governor Acharya maintained 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 without the approval, knowledge and sanction of the political party they belonged to, namely, the NPF – and gave preference to TR Zeliang’s whip when the latter moved the Motion of Confidence.

Incidentally, TR Zeliang was expelled from the NPF a few minutes he was sworn in on July 19, 2017, but the Speaker conveniently forgot that fact and accepted TR Zeliang as the Whip of the very political party from which he was expelled!

Governor Acharya was a mute spectator to all these drama of massacre where democratic and parliamentary norms were shredded to pieces by the Speaker of Nagaland Legislative Assembly in favour of his brother in law TR Zeliang.

Issued by:
Media & Press Bureau,
Naga People’s Front, Central Headquarters,
Kohima: Nagaland