NSCN-K puts Cong in a spot
- Imkong paid us Rs 5 lakh H. CHISHI Kohima, Feb. 19: Nagalands
worst-kept secret tumbled out today when the NSCN (Khaplang) claimed to have
received a donation from the Congress, thanked it for being generous and
conjectured that the party was courting it with an eye on the elections next
year.
The Khaplang groups ministry of finance issued a statement conveying its
gratitude to the Congress for the Rs 5 lakh received through the leader of the
Opposition, I. Imkong Ao. It did not mention any date.
Kughalu Mulatonu, the outfits chaplee kilonser (finance minister), then made
an even more sensational statement. He said the donation might have been made
in anticipation of help in winning the Assembly elections, slated for early
next year.
The money could be to play the buy-and-win game for the coming elections,
Mulatonu said.
He claimed that Imkong was trying to court the Khaplang faction to
consolidate his position. The chaplee ministry is grateful to I. Imkong Ao
for assisting the Ao region (unit of the outfit) with Rs 5 lakh, the militant
leader added.
The leader of the Opposition could not be reached for his comment on the NSCN
(K)s claim.
For the ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland, it is most certainly payback
time. Accused by the Congress of being partial towards the NSCN (Isak-Muivah),
chief minister Neiphiu Rio and his colleagues can be expected to use the NSCN
(K)s statement as political ammunition against the party.
The NSCN (K) had written to legislators from Mokokchung district last year,
seeking Rs 1 lakh each. One of the legislators later leaked a copy of the
letter to the media.
The letter explained that the money collected from the legislators would be
used to reorganise our Ao region, disbanded after the 2003 public uprising
against the outfit.
Several leaders from the Ao region defected to the NSCN (I-M) in the wake of
the uprising in Mokokchung. Since then, the Khaplang groups relationship with
the Ao community has been tenuous at best.
More recently, the NSCN (K) accused industries and commerce minister Khekiho
Zhimomi of pocketing a huge amount of money meant for its coffers. It said the
minister embezzled money from the Transport Subsidy and Industry Development
Fund.
Zhimomi refuted the allegation.
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