History truly has an image of a circle. Men and women begin and begin again with the same beliefs and approaches — to come back to the same history
Veteran Lotha legislator T A Ngullie has breathed his last. His beard could always made one wonder; how this Naga leader looked so different from others.
Of course he was an ‘another’ interesting leader of his time. But for me at a personal level, somehow as an uncle he wanted to impose food restrictions.
On occasions when Naga leaders and officials would host lunch and dinner laying the tables with lot many varieties of meat dishes, T A Ngullie sahab would tell the waiters or other helping staff — ” Dev toh is a vegetarian .. I am like his uncle, take him to the other side”. I never has been a veg fan and hence I had no reason to tell him that I was one.
The fact of the matter has been — somehow as an oldtimer he believed that ‘Devs’ have to be from upper caste Hindus and hence vegetarian.
Hence on one or two occasions, I missed my favourite Lotha / Bamboo shoot pork.
Nevertheless; he was a non-confrontational politician even to his critics and had the quality to laugh at himself.
Needless to add that T A Ngullie had the potential to become Chief Minister. But somehow things could not be handled.
In 1990, CM S C Jamir dropped him as Planning Minister and that started ‘instability’ in the cabinet.
Jamir and T A Ngullie were good friends and both knew each other too well.
Once Ngullie slammed Jamir in his lengthy speech on Budget and the underground
policy on the floor of the assembly.
Having known his ‘friend’ well, the irreplaceable S C Jamir adopted his characteristic style to counter all the allegations. “I think, Mr Ngullie did not have a sound sleep last night,” Jamir said tongue-in-cheek and the entire House broke into a peals of laughter.
The Wokha district produced several colourful and enterprising leaders.
Some of them were E T Ezung, T Kikon and Rainbow Ezung. But T A Ngullie was different.
T A Ngullie – had all the talent to become first Lotha Chief Minister. The fact that Wokha district gave only
four legislators was one handicap. “Jamir is always taller than me…in height and also he has ten MLAs,” T A Ngullie had remarked after he was asked to resign as the Planning Minister in January 1990.
At a later stage after Jamir was toppled and K L Chishi became CM; 10 MLAs including Neiphiu Rio were disqualified by the then Speaker T N Ngullie. But to do that, the Congress leadership had ”expelled’ T A Ngullie and Chubatemjen Ao and hence as “unattached MLAs’ both missed getting ministerial berths under Vamuzo.
But Vamuzo-Thenucho combine played another game and subsequently all disqualified members were given back their membership and Congress ministers were booted out from the Vamuzo ministry.
Now, Rio and Chubatemjen missed ministership and T A Ngullie was the Power Minister. Of course under K L Chishi for about a month, Rio was the Power Minister and Chubatemjen held the prized portfolio of Finance.
T A Ngullie was earlier Finance Minister too and the story goes that his friendship with the then serving IAS officer S S Ahluwalia was legendary. Here one can cite the quote as a reference. “First method of estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.” — Niccolo Machiavelli.
Inferences are left for the readers.
The Congress party is certainly no longer the same political outfit that took Nagaland by storm. It is the party that gave stalwarts Hokishe Sema, S C Jamir, J B Jasokie, K L Chishi, Chingwang Konyak and T A Ngullie was one of them.
In the eighties, S C Jamir had started gaining ground in Nagaland politics and at a later stage, many said T A Ngullie was his compatriot in many shenanigans.
On April 18, 1980, CM Vizol had to quit.
The same day, the ULP ministry headed by Jamir took charge. Two of his compatriots were T A Ngullie and Dr Setu Legise.
T A Ngullie was also a sincere legislator unlike many of the present generation.
Notably, among the Private Member’s Resolution, T A Ngullie
on March 3, 1965 moved a paper seeking to convey that “Hindi should not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking areas”.
Some of these resolutions also reflect the state of governance then.
K V Keditsu on March 17, 1967 moved a Private Member’s Resolution on “withdrawal of Government vehicles from non-entitled persons”. So, nepotism was around.
On Sept 23, 1971, T A Ngullie had moved a Private Member’s Resolution and said among other things – “The state government of Nagaland be moved to consider
the release of Naga prisoners held/detained in connection with the underground Naga political activity”.
The writer is a freelance journalist and author
