In what has been seen as an attempt to keep him out of Nagaland, the NIA has summoned former chief minister T.R. Zeliang for questioning in a 2016 case.
Ram Madhav along with BJP and NDPP leaders at Raj Bhavan on March 4 to stake a claim on forming the government. Credit: Twitter
New Delhi: Even before the new Nagaland assembly begins its maiden session scheduled for March 13, “discontent” has begun simmering in the recently-formed People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) government over the distribution of portfolios.
As per local media reports, the two alliance partners – National Progressive Democratic Party (NDPP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – are wrangling over who will corner the plum cabinet berths, thus delaying the distribution of portfolios. On March 8, 11 ministers were sworn in, besides NDPP leader Neiphiu Rio as the chief minister.
The simmering unhappiness has reportedly triggered political uncertainty, with both the NDPP and the Naga People’s Front (NPF), the single-largest party in the recent elections, housing their MLAs in two different hotels in the state capital, Kohima, to keep a strict watch on them in order to avoid political poaching.
NPF, with 27 seats, is just four short to meet the simple majority mark of 31. Since NDPP is not yet a registered party, the Tenth Schedule of the constitution, which bars MLAs from defecting to another party unless they comprise two-thirds of the legislators of that party, is not applicable to it.
With BJP’s central leadership keeping out of the government “some of the party’s MLAs to create space for new entrants from other parties”, including naming former NPF MLA and home minister Y. Patton as the deputy chief minister, there have been reports of discontent among some BJP MLAs too.
According to top sources in the NDPP, though the party has the largest number of MLAs in the new government at 18, “It has managed to get only four of the 12 cabinet ranks while the BJP, with 12 MLAs, has pushed our party leadership to give it six of them, including the post of deputy chief minister.”
BJP’s Ram Madhav with NDPP leader and now chief minister Neiphiu Rio and the Janata Dal (United) MLA (L) after forging an alliance to form a government in Nagaland. Credit: Twitter
“While most of our NDPP MLAs are already unhappy as it has benefitted the BJP more even though it has less seats, the BJP is now demanding that all the top portfolios be given to it, leaving only the finance department to us. This has created further simmering of discontent,” the sources said. Though the BJP MLA from Bhandari, M. Kikon, was sworn in by state governor P.B. Acharya on March 9 as the pro-tem speaker to lead the maiden assembly session, NDPP sources said, “BJP is likely to concede the speakership to us.”
State BJP top sources have confirmed these claims to The Wire, stating that on March 11, BJP national general secretary in charge of the Northeast, Ram Madhav, arrived in Kohima to convince Rio about the party’s portfolio demands. “However, the speaker would most likely be from NDPP,” the sources added.
Speaking to local reporters on March 11, veteran politician and NDPP legislator Pohwang Konyak said that after sacrificing (a cabinet berth) in the interest of the PDA coalition, and after giving what was demanded (by the BJP), “it was not fair that BJP was arm-twisting (the NDPP) to get plum portfolios.”
“Just because BJP is ruling at the Centre does not mean that the party can act like this,” he told the Nagaland Post.
“The saffron party knows that Rio is at their mercy for the second time; the first was in 2003 when BJP got seven seats and supported the NPF (led by Rio as the chief minister) to form the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government,” wrote Nagaland Page, adding, “The NPF is closely watching the drama and has still not lost hope of forming the government with like-minded parties.”
Though NDA ally National People’s Party (NPP) initially lent support to the NPF, it has now decided to back the NDPP-led government. While the lone Janata Dal (United) MLA G. Kaito Aye and the lone independent candidate Tangpang Ozukum were given a cabinet berth each for their crucial support to the alliance government, NPP is still not a part of the government.
Meanwhile, in an interesting coincidence, NPF leader and former state chief minister T.R. Zeliang has been suddenly summoned to New Delhi by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) on March 13, the first day of the assembly session, in connection with an ongoing investigation related to alleged “tax collection” from government departments to fund the banned armed group, NSCN (Khaplang).
As per the notice served to Zeliang on March 12, he has been asked to present himself at the Lodhi Road office of the NIA at 10 am on March 13 “along with documents relevant to the payments received from the government departments, for the purpose of answering certain questions relating to investigation of the instant case”.
“This is another tactic of putting pressure on NPF by the BJP so that it can’t form a government with those MLAs who are not happy with both BJP and NDPP. The timing shows that it is to keep Zeliang out of Nagaland for some days. This sudden notice from NIA itself shows that all is not well in the PDA government,” claimed a senior NPF legislator and a former minister on the condition of anonymity.
Watch: Were the Nagaland elections a win-win situation for the BJP?
In response to the notice, Zeliang is said to have expressed his inability to appear before the NIA because of “such a short notice”.
“You could kindly appreciate that in view of the Assembly Session commencing from March 13 to March 26, I am required to attend the session as the Leader of the Opposition,” he wrote.
A statement issued by the press secretary to the leader of the NPF Legislature party said, “Earlier on February 15 and 16, just before the state assembly elections, NIA had summoned for questioning three officials to Guwahati which included OSD, Media Officer and Public Relations Officer to the then chief minister T R Zeliang.
It further added, “The timing of the summons, despite cooperation rendered from day one, is conspicuously odd and political vendetta surrounding the case cannot be ruled out,” said the communique.”
The NIA has been investigating the case since August 2016, after an NSCN (K) leader, Khetose Sumi, was nabbed in Dimapur on July 31, 2016. In October 2017, the investigating agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs arrested four state government officials on the charge of handing out Rs 20 crore from the state exchequer in a span of four years to NSCN (K). According to media reports, it recovered payment slips and registers to show the movement of funds.
Around that time, it also recovered Rs 27 lakh from the Dimapur house of Niki Sumi, a self-styled commander of NSNC (K) believed to be in Myanmar.
In 2015, the NIA had announced a bounty of Rs 17 lakh on Niki Sumi, accused of orchestrating an attack on security forces in June that year, killing 18 army personnel.
In January 2017, in a Facebook photo uploaded by NSCN (K) leader Isak Sumi, Niki Sumi was seen posing with Indian ambassador to Myanmar Vikram Misri. Later, speaking to reporters, then spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said, “It was a part of casual pictures taken on the occasion of Naga New Year. It would not be appropriate to attach any significance to them.”
The story has been updated with additional information.
