Clarification to Tokheho’s amnesiac recollections

Kohima, 03rd August, 2017

Mr Tokheho Yepthomi’s elaboration of the sequence of events leading to the stepping down of Mr TR Zeliang in February this year is a storehouse of information which should be treasured for posterity. But first of all, it should be made very clear that suspended and expelled members of the NPF cannot and should not claim to be the NPF Legislature Party but consider themselves as unattached members of the august House. If they are so keen to cling to the NPF nomenclature they should realise the folly of their misadventures in the recent times that are harming the very political party they seem to love so much.

As per Tokheho’s version, February 15, 2017 seems to be the turning point in the whole episode and the late night meeting that took place in the residence of the NPF President where the legislators raised their hands and appended their signatures in support of Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu to replace TR Zeliang.

But the truth of the matter is that the whole thing started on February 12 Sunday afternoon when after a closed-door meeting between TR Zeliang, Dr Shurhozelie and KG Kenye, a meeting was held at the residence of the party President with the consent of TR Zeliang where Tokheho and Patton, among a few other elected members strongly proposed Dr Shurhozelie to take over. Accordingly, a signature campaign was launched where Tokheho’s signature figured prominently. Documents, after all, don’t lie.

The meeting of February 15 night came about through the initiative of Tokheho who phoned up KG Kenye to urgently organize a meeting and bring the signature campaign to a logical conclusion. Therefore, it was not KG Kenye who organized the meeting but Tokheho and few others like Patton. Details of the whole episode are available and as and when necessary, shall be made public.

The following midnight meeting at the State Banquet Hall that same night had been left out in Mr Tokheho’s narrative. But eyewitnesses say every man jack of the legislators told Mr TR Zeliang to immediately step down and to let Dr Shurhozelie take over to salvage the dreary situation. The irony of it all, these eyewitnesses continue, after giving the dressing down to Mr TRZ at the Banquet Hall, quite a few of these legislators followed him up to his residence assuring him they were all still with him! And to show their unflinching solidarity with him, some even slept over at his residence!

The following morning dawned bright and clear, and the Chief Minister TR Zeliang, accompanied by the Governor, left Kohima by chopper to catch a connecting flight to Delhi. Reports have it that TR Zeliang held closed-door meetings at Arunachal Bhawan with few Central and one not-so-central leader on two consecutive nights, following which telephone calls were made and our honourable legislators made a bee-line to Kaziranga. Such was their haste to grab the more lucrative portfolios that three high-end luxury cars belonging to these legislators met with an accident: the first one hit the rear or a truck and the second car, failing to control its speed, rammed into the first and the third one smashed the rear of the second!

Of course, Mr Tokheho is absolutely right when he said “as per the law of the land, elected MLAs of NPF party cannot be summoned ... to a private residence to pass any resolution to remove the Leader of the Legislature Party and Chief Minister from his position.” The elected MLAs should have been summoned to Kaziranga instead!

To be very fair, it must be pointed out that not all the legislators went to Kaziranga on February 17-18 last. Honourable member like Mr Tokheho, for instance, was not informed for reasons not known to many.

And taking the advice of Mr Tokheho to “... look back at the events that had occurred in the past before becoming the Judge, the Jury and the Executioner” the NPF would like to place before people’s court concrete evidence about the actual relation of Tokheho with the NPF party: He got elected on a Congress ticket in 2003, and when seven of them were tasked by the Congress party to study ways and means to topple the DAN I, he promptly merged the group with the NPF and was awarded with a Cabinet berth.

In the later part of DAN I, he sided with the dissident group and presented the Naga people with President’s rule on January 3, 2008, went back with his tail behind his legs to the Congress party and got himself elected on Congress Tickets in 2008 as well as in 2013. And finding that remaining loyal to the Congress party for one full term was unbearable, and developing cold turkey being out of power for so long, when an opportunity came his way in 2015, he lost no time to forsake the Congress party and merged his legislators with the NPF!

Indeed, it is a matter of great academic interest that at present we have different categories of NPF MLAs: NPF MLAs through merger who have never been issued with an NPF Ticket; NPF MLAs who develop cold turkey when out of power for even a few months; Independent MLAs who act more loyal than NPF MLAs because they need NPF ticket to win in the next election; NPF MLAs who have a separate set of toiletries packed and ready to be stacked into their vehicle to rush off anytime to Kaziranga at the snap of the fingers!

Issued by,

Media & Press Bureau,
Naga People’s Front, Central Office