Even as Nagaland Chief Minister, T.R. Zeliang, won the confidence motion on the floor of the Nagaland legislative assembly, political turmoil in the frontier northeastern state is far from over.
As a show of resentment against the alleged unconstitutional and undemocratic behaviour of the governor, P.B. Acharya, the youth wing of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) on Friday night organised a 'beef fest' in Kohima and invited the governor to attend it.
In the invitation letter to Acharya, the NPF youth wing said, "To celebrate your latest political coup, and to mark the severance of ties with your political party, the BJP, we are organising a beef fest. (Your Excellency knows Nagas are voracious meat-eaters). We request you to cancel some of your not-so-official engagements in political scheming and to come and join us for dinner at the office headquarters of the NPF central office in Kohima." The invitation letter was reportedly handed over to a staff at Raj Bhavan.
The invitation letter also said that the governor has been “terribly busy” in the last few days, breaking all democratic norms and playing politics to install a BJP-friendly government in the state. “You have forgotten that the office of the governor should be apolitical”, the invitation letter stated.
The NPF youth wing said the governor had turned a blind eye to a “monumental travesty” of democracy, where a member of the assembly who is “expelled” from the NPF for a period of six years, has been “accepted” as the chief whip of the very party (NPF) from which he was expelled.
Zeliang, however, tried his best to clarify the confusion over the status of an expelled member, by quoting legal opinion on the issue.
At the dinner party, hundreds of NPF party workers and senior functionaries, mostly supporters of Shurhozelie, the ousted chief minister, participated.
Diners, with plates in their hands, were seen smiling, but patiently waiting for their turn to be served at the party. Apparently, three full-grown cows were slaughtered for the feast.
Beef is a traditional food for the people in the hill state. So, the Nagaland BJP had to assure voters that if the party came to pwer in the state, which goes to polls early next year, beef would not be banned.
Expectedly, Acharya, failed to turn up at the dinner party. But the accusations against the governor continues. Former chief minister Shurhozelie alleged that he has become a victim of politics and that the governor had turned the Raj Bhavan into a BJP office, in order to establish a saffron government in Nagaland next year.
