GUWAHATI: The bitter exchange of words between Nagaland Governor RN Ravi and Neiphiu Rio government has continued.
The People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) government is not happy over the “negative statements” made by Ravi, who is also the interlocutor in Naga peace talks, in his Independence Day speech.
“Nagaland is endowed with one of the finest human and natural resources. Unfortunately, today it has the dubious distinction of the worst-performing state in the country including the Northeast region on almost all the significant indicators of human development,” the governor had said in his Independence Day speech.
Days later, the state government responded to counter the statement. “The PDA has taken note of the people’s concern on the contents of the honourable Governor’s Independence Day speech wherein negative statements on Nagaland were made. The PDA observes that the speech has not been well received by the people,” an official statement reads.
It added: “Though Nagaland may not be the best-performing state, we are making every effort to take the state forward on all developmental fronts. As representatives of the people, the PDA is compelled to voice the feelings of the people”.
The relationship between the Governor and the PDA government strained after the former’s stinging letter to the CM on the alleged worsening law and order situation.
In the June 16 letter, Ravi had said the “unrestrained depredations by over half a dozen organized armed gangs, brazenly running their so-called governments and challenging the legitimacy of the state government without any resistance from the state law and order machinery, had created a crisis of confidence in the system”.
His oblique reference was to the various insurgent groups in peace mode. The statement was countered not just by the extremists but also by the state government.
Rio claimed that the law and order situation had vastly improved compared to the years preceding the Centre’s signing of ceasefire agreements with the insurgents in the 1960s and 1990s. To prove a point, he had pointed out that Nagaland was awarded the “Best Performing Small State in Law and Order” in 2018 and 2019 by The India Today Group State of the States survey. He said the award was testimony to the state’s improved law and order situation.
Thereafter in July, based on a direction from the Raj Bhawan, the state’s chief secretary had issued a memo, directing the heads of departments to obtain information, in a self-declaration form, from all government servants if they have any family members or close relatives in the rebel groups. Unlike the extremists, the Rio government chose not to react but it was said to be upset with the governor’s direction.