It is a great honour and recognition to BJP’s much talked about Matri Shakti — women power — as the lone Nagaland MP in the Upper House S Phangnon Konyak has been nominated as one of the vice chairpersons of the Upper House.
Under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), Chairman (Mr Dhankhar) has been pleased to nominate you on the Panel of Vice Chairpersons with effect from July 17, an official communique from the Rajya Sabha said.
“Taking up this new responsibility in the service of our nation with great humility. My sincere gratitude to the Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar Ji, for the trust placed in me. I shall strive to do my best,” Phangnon tweeted.
Phangnon Konyak hails from Oting village in remote and development-starved Mon district.
It may be mentioned that in December 2021, the Modi government and security forces had come under attack for the killing of ‘innocent Konyak mine workers’ mistaken as Naga insurgents at Oting village.
Mon district falls under Eastern Nagaland and seven tribes from the region including Konyaks have demanded early granting of an ‘autonomous territory’ for the region.
Phangnon is the second Naga woman parliamentarian after Late Rano Shaiza, who was elected into Lok Sabha in 1977.
Fielding a state women’s wing chief for the Rajya Sabha polls may not seem much of a surprise in the rest of India, but in the context Nagaland, where patriarchy and male chauvinism rule politics, it was a path-breaking decision for the BJP to nominate Phangnon.
Now, to get nominated as a member of the Vice Chairpersons panel is a prestigious occasion certainly.
She will get opportunities to preside over the proceedings of the Upper House. The Monsoon Session of Parliament gets underway from July 20.
Before 2023 assembly elections, Nagaland had never elected a woman to its state legislature. In this year’s elections two women candidates of NDPP made it to the assembly.
Post-Emergency in 1977, late Rano Shaiza was elected as Nagaland MP to the Lok Sabha as a United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate, defeating the sitting Congress veteran Hokishe Sema.
Nagaland has a high literacy rate, and English is its official language. However, the Nagaland Assembly holds the dubious distinction of opposing the women’s reservation bill, which had sought to reserve 33 per cent of state legislatures and parliamentary seats for women.
In 1997, during the tenure of the S C Jamir government in Nagaland, the then parliamentary affairs minister, Zhove Lohe, had moved a resolution, which the Assembly passed unanimously.
The then opposition regional outfit, Nagaland People’s Council (NPC), the earlier avatar of the Naga People’s Front,
led by the flamboyant Vamuzo, were part of the move. The influential Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) too had written to the parliamentary select committee chairperson Geeta Mukherjee, saying the bill went against Naga tradition.
Even the women’s reservation in urban local bodies has been vehemently opposed.
In fact, the incumbent state government under Neiphiu Rio leading the NDPP-BJP dispensation is facing a ‘contempt’ proceeding in the Supreme Court for defying the apex court’s order.
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