Naga People’s Front (NPF) president Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu has distanced the party organisation from the current exercise to form an all-party government, adding that the decision was made by NPF legislators while the party organisation only advised its MLAs wherever the need arose.
Dr. Shürhozelie stated this while reacting to a report on August 23 about wide speculations that NPF was willing to revive the DAN alliance with BJP in order to replace NDPP as ruling coalition.
Dr. Shürhozelie said this while reacting to a news item published on August 23, of wide speculations that NPF was willing to revive DAN alliance with BJP to replace the NDPP in the state.
Further, Dr. Shürhozelie clarified that the “coming together” of MLAs did not mean “coming together of political parties” as political parties would continue to remain as they were.
According to him(a) NPF legislators will join “ this new experiment for political reason only” which is issue-based and (b) the NPF legislators will not ask or accept anything from the government.
Dr. Shürhozelie said in view of NPF not seeking any post in the government, the exercise will “in no way disturb the smooth sailing of the present government.”
He said as NPF being the main regional political party representing the people of Nagaland, “we have been trying to keep good relation with everyone” and thus harbour no “ill-will against any political party”. He reiterated “NPF belongs to the people, we are only having the opportunity to look after them.”
Dr. Shürhozelie maintained that NPF never said it wanted to revive alliance with BJP.
Understanding the best Naga tradition of what was considered shame, he said his party had never said anything as alleged.
He recalled that BJP was in alliance with NPF from 2003 to 2018 during which NPF “have given them full protection even at a time when there was no BJP MLA in the legislative assembly.
However, for best reasons known to BJP, Dr. Shürhozelie accused it of having walked away from NPF alliance “in search of greener pasture.”
He said BJP pulled NPF’s legs by betraying the trust “only at the eleventh hour of the last general election in 2018.” However, he said NPF has no regrets and neither ill will against anyone because of it. In the light of this, Dr. Shürhozelie said there was no justification for BJP to remain hesitant this far for fear of a political party forgetting its responsibility to support peace process.
He asserted that NPF had done nothing wrong against anyone, including BJP and that in a true spirit of regionalism, the party has decided on its own destiny and therefore, endorsed the move of its legislature to join the new exercise only for political reason. He hoped that people of Nagaland will understand, if any political party is against this move because what is termed as ‘political reason’ needed no further explanation to Nagas.