Keep the spirit of coalition alive, exhorts CM Zeliang

BJP President Amit Shah launches the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) comprising the BJP and its nine regional ally parties of the North East in Guwahati

Dimapur, July 13: Chief Minister TR Zeliang appealed to all political parties under North East Democratic Alliance to keep the spirit of Coalition alive saying that when like-minded political parties get together and work for the over-all development of the respective States, the Northeast region would develop at par with the rest of the country.
Addressing the launching ceremony of the NEDA today at Guwahati, Zeliang recalled how in 2004 some BJP legislators in Nagaland merged with his party the NPF and said, “I realised that it was not the right thing” and went on to add that coalition partners should not be disturbed as had been done in other instances.
“No matter how small or big our coalition partners are, we should keep the spirit of coalition alive and should not attempt to lure them to merge with one’s political party. This is not a healthy development in this era of coalition politics,” he said.
“As coalition partners in few crucial Northeastern States, the BJP and other regional parties should respect and honor each other in order to strengthen the coalition and also to ensure smooth function of the Coalition Governments, Zeliang added.
Zeliang also went on to cite practical difficulties the States of the region face presently owing to defective funding pattern and pointed out that instead of hiking up the annual funds for the region, the fund allocation has been diminishing over the years.“Moreover, rather than have separate sources of funds such as NEC, NLCPR and DoNER, it would be most convenient to have the funds for the region sanctioned to NEC directly from source,” he said and appealed to the DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, who was also present at the ceremony, to ensure the suggestion since it would be more beneficial to all the individual States of the region.
Zeliang also lamented that even though the Government of India announces various packages and programmes for the region, many States like Nagaland do not get any benefits out of these packages owing to irrelevance of the programmes, or lack of follow-up action by the Centre.
He however, was all praise for Special Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) which had resulted in the completion of important roads of the region such as Guwahati-Shillong, Guwahati-Silchar and so on and so forth.
Zeliang also requested DoNER Minister and BJP President to convey to the Ministry of Home Affairs to lift the restriction imposed on construction of roads within 25 kilometres of the international borders.
He requested the Government of India to ensure early completion of other projects in the other States which were taken up, but were incomplete.
Opining that the coming together of like-minded political parties like NEDA would greatly benefit the region in many ways, he expressed satisfaction that NEDA would go a long way since the ruling BJP at the Centre is part of the Alliance.
“Earlier, we had regional political parties forum, but the Forum could not work out because it had no relation with the then ruling Congress at the Centre. But now, since the ruling BJP is part of us, I am confident that in the coming years, we shall have NEDA Governments in the entire region,” he said.
Zeliang also recalled how his own government faced turmoil earlier last year when differences cropped up in his party NPF, and how, when a floor test was called for, all political parties including the Congress and Independent MLAs voted in favour of his leadership, thereby, creating an opposition-less government for the first time in the history of democratic world.
Zeliang also reminded the National BJP President Amit Shah, who launched the formation of NEDA earlier in the morning, that initially, he was against the idea of running the government with the Congress party, but when a few months later the Congress legislators merged with the NPF, even the Prime Minister called him up and congratulated him.
“Today, Nagaland Assembly is the most peaceful Assembly in the country since we have no opposition,” he said, and on a jocular vein, added: “I think I can teach the BJP President how to get rid of the Congress party in the country!”
According to Media Cell, Chief Minister’s Office, earlier in the day, BJP President Amit Shah launched the NEDA by lighting the traditional lamp.
NEDA consists BJP, NPF, AGP, Bodoland People’s Front, Ganashakti, Mizo National Front, United Democratic Party (Meghalaya), Sikkim Democratic Party, Arunachal People’s Party and the National People’s Party (Meghalaya)

Amit Shah promises
Who says humour can’t get things done? Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang revealed today at the launching of NEDA at Guwahati that while sharing the dais with BJP President Amit Shah, he confessed that he can’t speak Hindi because the government of India did not make serious attempts to introduce Hindi as a subject in schools during the 1960s and 1970s.
“Do not blame me for being unable to speak Hindi, Blame the Government of India! If Mr Shah can teach me how to speak Hindi, I can teach him how to get rid of the Congress party in the States,” he said and revealed that when he told the BJP President this while interacting earlier in the morning, the latter had promised to set up Hindi Learning Institutes in all the district headquarters in Nagaland.
Zeliang said the government will soon prepare a proposal for the same and put up for the approval of, and sanction from, the government of India.