The Naga People’s Front had won the 2013 General Assembly election with a landslide victory securing 38 seats, which at a later stage increased to 48 NPF MLAs with the merger of 1 NCP, 1 JDU and 8 Congress MLAs. Then came the 16th Lok Sabha election in 2014 where the then Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio decided to contest much against the wishes of the party and the elected members with an excuse to speak for the Nagas in the Parliament. NPF party as a whole has no choice but to send him to the Lok Sabha with a very big margin, having much faith that this tall man shall deliver his promises. But much to the bewilderment of everyone, he decided to dismantle the strong fabric of the NPF party before his departure. A situation arose where majority of the party elected members opted for T.R Zeliang to take over the chair of the Chief Minister, but N. Rio would not part with the chair and it was only after a bitter tussle, and on being assured by his lobbies that he would be inducted as union minister, he finally paved way for T.R. Zeliang to take over as Chief Minister.
Even after this, when Rio’s name did not feature in the induction list of the union minister, he began to play another card by forcing 3 NCP legislators to merge with the BJP.
T.R Zeliang reacted sharply and pursued for disqualification of the 3 NCP MLAs and the matter reached the Supreme Court. In 2015, another political conspiracy of Rio unfolded as he projected Kaito Aye as the Chief Minister and caused groupism in the NPF party resulting in the infamous Sovima camp episode. Because of his nefarious and notorious evil intention, the NPF party with its Cock symbol came under attack and the issue was taken up to the Election Commission of India whereby, the ECI directed both the warring parties to reconcile under the provisions of NPF party constitution.
In the light of this reconciliation, the BJP, being an alliance partner in the DAN initiated for induction of Neiphiu Rio in the union ministry, but a week before the induction, T. R Zeliang cunningly convinced and literally forced the NPF to suspend Rio from NPF party which was indeed, a big blow and the chapter of Rio’s induction in the union ministry became a closed chapter. This was done so, in T.R Zeliang’s very own words, “to protect and safeguard the NPF leadership of President Dr. Shurhozelie and also his Chief Minister’s chair.”
Notwithstanding all these, the issue of ULB election with 33% women reservation yet again sparked off and was blown out of proportion resulting in loss of Government properties and precious lives of the two young men. For the first time in the political history of the Nagas, the town and cities of Nagaland came under complete siege, where government-registered vehicles and government officials could not even move out of their homes. They were in fact under house arrest for almost one month. Our state became paralyzed and it ultimately forced T.R Zeliang to step down.
To place the record straight, it was at the behest and instigation of Mr. N. Rio, that T. R Zeliang had to step down. The majority of the elected members prayed that Dr. Shurhozelie should take over but amidst all these political storms, few vested interested persons came in between and created huge division among the elected members, resulting in T.R Zeliang shooting off to Delhi the very next day without meeting Dr. Shurhozelie, to meet the central leaders, which is well described as the midnight drama by Tokheho Yeptho, the main architect of the whole show which he also makes a mention in his press statement.
Adding to the drama, T.R Zeliang with his inability to control the situation, called up the president Dr. Shurhozelie and pretended that he was rushing off to Delhi to convince the central leadership not to impose President’s Rule in the state but on the sly made a secret pact with Rio to take over the CM chair without consulting any of the MLAs supporting his Government. A secret communiqué was issued to the MLAs to move out of Nagaland and eventually, they landed in Kaziranga only to be left awestruck as the resort was flooded with Rio’s supporters who were already on the job of finalizing the new government formation without the consent of the majority MLAs. A major blow to Rio during this infamous campaign was the majority MLAs rejecting his leadership and had refused to ditch the NPF party president Dr. Shurhozelie, resulting in their homecoming and installing Dr. Shurhozelie as the Chief Minister of Nagaland.
In the event that has unfolded before our very eyes, and despite of all the betrayal, the pain and the damage done to the image of NPF party, there has been several efforts by individuals, Organizations and even elected members to revoke Rio’s suspension order and to patch up with Dr. Shurhozelie in the interest of the Nagas to which Dr. Shurhozelie agreed.
However, it is the handiwork of T.R Zeliang who compelled Dr. Shurhozelie not to revoke the suspension of Rio, on the pretext that Rio’s coming back would eventually destroy not only the NPF party and their leadership too, but would even destroy Khriehu Liezietsu’s future. Such were the tricks pulled out from the sleeves of T.R Zeliang to prevent Rio’s suspension revocation. T.R Zeliang even reported that henchmen and conman were deployed to physically eliminate himself and Dr. Shurhozelie after the Sovima episode, which was done so with intention to blame the Sovima campers. After the total destruction of Dr. Shurhozelie and Rio’s relationship, knowing fully well that they won’t be coming back together again, T.R Zeliang began to build bridges with Rio to again destroy the NPF party. T.R Zeliang managed to gain the confidence of Rio by promising to push for Rio’s induction in the Union ministry.
Rio did not refuse this proposal since his sole intention was to see Dr. Shurhozelie and T.R going their separate ways. Rio was pleased and signed a secret deal with the BJP to dismantle the Naga people’s Front. Now, that they are together, the people need to know the truth and it is for them to clarify their position.
The Cock party, which is a Naga political heritage and identity of the Nagas, should be preserved, protected and promoted to be handed down to the younger Naga generation.
