Z. Lohe
IT seems NPF has not yet recovered from the effect of transition from NR’s era to TRZ’s era. The trauma continues to dominate the mind of NPF leaders as I go on noticing the repetitive attempts to justify how every NPF MLA could not be taken on board of the present ministry. There may be many but one reason is obvious is no other than the formation of Mokokchung District NPF Forum which is feared to be a parallel set up to that of Mokokchung Divisional NPF unit. In near future, each one may like to claim inheritance from the party. There may also be better reasons for NPF to have the extended jetlag too. Of course, NPF knows it all.
In the recently concluded seminar of NPF held in Dimapur, the party once again clarified that when the present Chief Minister Mr. TR Zeliang formed his ministry, ‘no one was dropped or sacked as presumed’. Does it not imply that those are then retained? No. They are no more holding those public offices. And yet, in NPF’s parlance, when a serving Minister or Parliamentary Secretary is not allowed to retain his office but left to become a mere MLA is not called ‘dropped’ or ‘sacked’. Naturally. Both the words are irritating, provocative and embarrassing. NPF cannot afford to rub salt to the injury.
In my understanding, the word ‘sack’ is normally used to denote an abnormal and punitive action taken against an erring Minister whereby he has to demit the public office he holds. And the word ‘drop’ is usually used to denote the normal act of leaving a Minister in the induction through the process of pick and choose as per the leader’s prerogative. What made us, the lay people, understand out of the paper report is that those few Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries who failed to find berth in the present Ministry are dropped or sacked as no palatable vocabulary could save their chairs either.
Whatever may be the justification of NPF, since the former Ministers and former Parliamentary Secretaries were not ‘dropped’ or ‘sacked’ or retained, so they are MLAs now and they are expected by NPF to remain satisfied with the given clarification. I too hope that those MLAs do not feel at all that they are ‘dropped or sacked’ as NPF says so.
