GUWAHATI: A coalition of Nagaland’s tribes decided to go for broke in their campaign to unseat the state’s chief minister T R Zeliang after he refused to step down late Friday night. The tribes decided to launch a statewide bandh starting Monday and spoke of the prospect of president’s rule in the state.
The tribes want to scupper a move to introduce 33 per cent reservation for women in the state’s urban local body (ULB) elections, which have already been declared null and void due to the tribal unrest.
Last night Zeliang ran their gauntlet by refusing to step down as per a three-day deadline served upon him. Reacting sharply, the tribes denounced the chief minister as a “killer” and called for an indefinite statewide lockdown starting Monday, which threatens to disrupt the class X and class XII examinations that are beginning next week.
The Naga Tribes’ Action Committee (NTAC) and the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC), which are spearheading the agitation, said they would not accept anything short of Zeliang’s ouster.
Naga Tribes’ Action Committee convenor K T Villie told New Indian Express that the high school exams are of no concern. “How will students appear in the exams when there is a bandh? So we will approach the governor (P B Acharya) and write to the government to postpone the exams. But no matter what, we will enforce the bandh.”
At a meeting with NTAC leaders on Friday, governor Acharya sought time to resolve the deadlock.
Villie said the bandh would go on even if president’s rule was imposed in the state while giving Zeliang caretaker charge. “We will still continue our protests. He (Zeliang) cannot hold any post. A killer cannot be our leader,” he said.
Zeliang earned the “killer” moniker from the tribal organisations after two persons were killed in police firing on February 1 when protestors attempted to barge into the chief minister’s private residence in Dimapur.
The next day, protests spread to the capital Kohima with agitators going on a spree of arson.
The unrest began with the Zeliang government’s decision to go ahead with elections to some of the 32 ULBs in deference to a court order. In the wake of the violent incidents, the government nullified the polls but that has not pacified the tribal bodies.