Questions silence of the Church
DIMAPUR, MARCH 8 (AP): The Action Committee against Unabated Taxation has stated that the slogan “Nagaland for Christ” is now associated with “all the wrong kinds of activities – unabated taxation, factional killings and mayhem.” Terming this as a “gross distortion of our faith,” it expressed amazement that the NPGs “routinely collect tax with these sacrosanct words stamped on the taxation slips and their writing pads with civil society reduced to mute bystanders.” “The sheer magnitude of this hypocrisy is not lost on many of us and is a staggering example of where we have faltered as a society,” it added.
ACUAT Nagaland, in a press note, further questioned the “silence of the church on this burning issue,” and termed this as the prime issue “why young Nagas are simply skeptical of the Naga movement and the institution of the Church both.” As such it called upon the Nagaland Baptist Church Council to condemn this activity, which it termed as “blasphemous.”
ACAUT Nagaland stated that it “totally rejects the usage of the slogan “Nagaland for Christ” by the NPGs to legitimize its anti-people activities.” It condemned this “concerted attempt to legitimize what are essentially illegal activities by invoking divine sanction.” “Thus, any of the NPGs issuing tax demands under the cover of Nagaland for Christ is deemed anti-Naga,” it added.
The Committee further condemned the practice of NPGs “employing Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants (IBIs) to carry out their extortion activities bearing these sanctimonious words in the taxation slips.” It viewed that “any other entity other than the church using Nagaland for Christ in non-spiritual matters is profaning our faith” and that “taxation activity under this banner is nothing but anti-Christian and anti-people.”
