Meet Shurhozelie Liezietsu: Nagaland to get an intellectual as CM

Shurhozelie Liezietsu is on his way to taking over from T R Zeliang as Nagaland CM

Ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) chief Shurhozelie Liezietsu is on his way to taking over from T R Zeliang as chief minister of Nagaland, with 42 of 49 legislators “unanimously” backing him. Zeliang on Sunday announced his decision to resign as chief minister.

Earlier, Zeliang had sought two-three days to demit office. “A majority of the NPF legislators unanimously elected Shurhozelie Liezietsu as their new legislature party leader to break the deadlock between the agitating groups and the government. We have tried our best to persuade the protesters but they refused to back down,” Nagaland’s lone Rajya Sabha member K G Kenye, told reporters.

That’s how it ended for Zeliang, considered as master of the impossible. Although NPF, has been a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for several years, Zeliang had managed to bring on one platform both the Congress and the BJP in Nagaland. Congress leader Tokheho Yepthomi and the BJP’s Paiwang Konyak serve in Zeliang’s ministry together in peaceful coexistence. Although the BJP tried to put a stop to it, saying it could not work in the same government with the Congress, no one paid much attention to it. So, under Zeliang, there was only a ruling party — and no opposition — in Nagaland.

Obviously, this could not endure. Like any other state, an opposition developed from within. This manifested itself in an agitation led by tribal bodies when Zeliang announced in January that 33 per cent of the seats in the municipal polls would be reserved for women and went ahead with the election. 

The state, which only needs an excuse to pass into shutdowns, erupted in protest. Women have a place in Naga society and were especially empowered by the democratic rights movement in the state in the 1980s. But, they are missing in the power politics equation. Zeliang’s opponents seized upon this move as a way to dilute the authority of their rivals. So, new political equations suddenly appeared.

In the politics of Nagaland, there are many interested parties and frequently politics is influenced by invisible entities.

The soon-to-be chief minister has his work cut out for him. Tribal councils, known as HoHo, are opposed to the reservation for women. They feel Naga customary law should be followed and not something that people from the plains have committed themselves to and are mindlessly replicating that decision in the state. On the other hand, women see this opposition as sexist and believe there must be reservation. Reconciling these two positions is the job of the new chief minister.

Although Liezietsu had announced in 2013, then 77, that he would retire from politics (he contested his first election in 1969), he was persuaded to become minister for urban development and higher education in the Zeliang government. He is a devout Christian, an intellectual and litterateur. He has authored dozens of books in the Tenyidie language and wants this to replace Nagamese, the Naga language that is an amalgam of Assamese, English, Bengali, Hindi and others. 

He is also president of the Ura Academy since 1970 and a member, school board of humanities and education, Nagaland University, and member, Board of Post-Graduate Studies in Tenyidie, Nagaland University.

During his tenure as education minister in 1980, Liezietsu introduced new types of school buildings in collaboration with the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee. He ensured more than 700 such buildings were built. He took the initiative in forming the village development board and started the construction of the present Nagaland secretariat building.