Rejoinder to NPF statement

15 June 2018, Kohima :

REJOINDER

1. It is unfortunate that the Opposition jumps at every perceived opportunity to try and gain publicity without any basis of legitimacy in the topics raised by it.

2. On June 5th, 2018, the State Cabinet held a meeting wherein among other topics, the Citizenship Amendment Bill was discussed. After threadbare discussions, the Cabinet was of the unanimous view that Nagaland is fully protected under Article 371 (A) of the Constitution of India and that the regulations of the Inner Line Permit provisions are fully activated and operational.

Moreover, the Government clearly stated in no uncertain terms that if the said Bill goes against the interests of the Nagas, the Government will surely oppose it without any hesitation. Until such an instance occurs, the Government will not interfere in the policies of the Central Government. The decisions taken in the aforementioned Cabinet meeting were also widely published in the local media on June 7th, 2018.

3. On the Chief Minister’s statement on integration, a clarification dated 14th June 2018 was issued by the Chief Minister’s Office and the same was published in the local dailies on 15th June 2018. The stand of the Chief Minister and the PDA Government on integration of contiguous Naga inhabited areas is clear – the rights of the Naga people to live together as members of the same family under one administrative umbrella will never be given up.

However, it should also be understood that Nagas must mutually coexist with other people, especially our neighbours who will remain as our neighbors for all times to come. In fact, the last resolution of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly on Naga integration was under the leadership the present Chief Minister on 18th December, 2003.

Both the NPF President and the Opposition Leader served as Chief Ministers in the last NPF led DAN Government. Did they even have the political will to call for and/or pass any resolution on integration? Before pointing fingers at the present Chief Minister, the NPF should first assess their performance while they held office under their present leadership.

4. The PDA govt remains wholeheartedly committed to an early resolution of the Indo-Naga political conflict in such a manner that is honorable and inclusive and the Government will leave no stone unturned in its endeavour of playing the role of an active facilitator.

The PDA Government reiterates that it will never compromise the rights and honour of the Nagas and the Government is ready to make any sacrifice for the greater interest of the people it was elected to represent. As such, the matter rests there and the same should not be sensationalized by the Opposition without any basis for the sake of gaining political mileage through dubious means.

5. Today, the NPF has forfeited all moral authority to even speak of the ‘Bedrock of Naga Society’ as they themselves have fully endorsed it by teaming up with the authors who are all in the same party today.

Dr. S. C. Jamir, the author of the condemned booklet and his brother Mr. S.I. Jamir, Ex-Minister are part and parcel of the NPF. Dr. Jamir’s son Mr. Apok Jamir is a full-fledged member of the NPF to the extent of being the NPF candidate in the recently concluded General Assembly Elections and the Lok Sabha bye elections. On both occasions he was handed crushing defeats by the people.

They should realize that these defeats are a rejection of the booklet by the Naga people. The NPF and its leaders should steer clear of the Bedrock of Naga Society as they have endorsed it fully through their political actions of aligning with the Congress. Therefore, the NPF’s misleading statements are only self-contradictory to their own actions and they should be ashamed to talk about it.

On the contrary, we remain opposed to the contents of the Bedrock of Naga Society as it is a sellout of the Nagas’ rights. It goes without saying that until and unless the authors apologize and reject the booklet, it cannot be erased. Even then, they have distributed it to all corners and to our adversaries and unimaginable damage has already been done to the Naga cause.

6. The rhetoric of the NPF does not hold good and they are merely barking with frustration after having realized that they have been rejected by the people. The NPF has lost all credibility of being a proactive Opposition since it is in the habit of creating issues out of non-issues on purpose to mislead the people and diverting attention from the fallout of its own misdeeds.

7. The NPF carried out the most negative election campaign in the history of the State by opposing the spirit of the Constitution and breaking all norms of the Model Code of Conduct. The NPF President and its other office bearers openly sought votes on religious and communal grounds and declared that TR Zeliang is the chief minister in waiting.

This exposed the poor quality of the NPF party’s ideology and intellectual inadequacy which resulted in outright rejection by the people. As long as the NPF says that TR Zeliang is the Chief Minister in waiting, it has no moral authority to speak on any issue since he lied to every citizen of the State repeatedly by claiming to have graduated from Kohima Arts College under NEHU in his earlier affidavits and then declaring in 2018 that he is “BA appeared”.

He inadvertently admitted to his own lies and yet the NPF continues to declare him as CM in waiting. It is evident that the NPF is suffering from an advanced form of tunnel vision since it refuses to acknowledge its own mistakes yet tries to smear the image of other parties and its leaders without any sense of rationality. Therefore, the people are the best judge to decide whether the NPF has any moral authority as long as it fails to practice what it tries to preach.

8. The NPF’s desperate attempts to sensationalize every matter by nit-picking only goes to prove that the Opposition party – after being rejected by the people inspite of all the force, manipulation and misinformation campaign on communal lines it used during the recently concluded General Elections and Bye-Elections to the Lok Sabha – is fast losing its relevance and fading into obscurity in an unprecedented downward spiral as has never been witnessed before.

Nevertheless, nothing more can be expected from a rejected party headed by a failed degree-holder as its Chief Ministerial candidate where an atmosphere of lies and deceit exists at the very top of the NPF party.

( Issued by:
NDPP,
Media & Communications Committee )