Dr Asangba Tzudir
The NLTP Act issue has cropped up again with DNSU giving the government 20-day ultimatum to set up committee to review NLTP on 19 April 2021. Following this, a unanimous decision was arrived between the Excise department and the DNSU to reconstitute committee on NLTP Act within 45 days. The 45 days time frame was given considering the processes that involve a lot of “consensus building and dialogue involving all stakeholders.”
To this end, an integral component of the stakeholder is the Church which seems to be caught in a mirage of imaging. Coming to Churches in Nagaland under NBCC, for long it has been actively engaged in trying to create its own Christian image under the banner of “Nagaland for Christ,” and in a Christian dominated state like Nagaland, such kind of ‘activity banners’ which includes “Clean election” serve as a precondition for imaging Nagaland as a Christian state.
Within the activity banner as ‘Nagaland for Christ’ comes the ongoing issue of the NLTP Act which has rather made the activity banner redundant, that the slogan seems to have become a source of fear rather than a source of power to uphold the banner of Nagaland for Christ in ways more meaningful that addresses the spiritual growth of the Church.
What are the Church leaders wary about? Is it about the open imaging of the highways and mushrooming hotels in Nagaland selling liquors openly if the NLTP Act is revoked? Is it scared that the number of alcohol drinkers with increase? Is it about Alcohol triggering various forms of violence especially in the family? Is it about the many lives lost to alcoholism? Will strengthening NLTP Act help put an end to such issues?
It is high time for the Church to do a reality check. The Churches as a Church of God need to choose between fear and faith. That, faith opens up the spectrum that would nurture the inclusive spiritual growth of the Church members in more productive ways. When fear seems to have destroyed the faith of the Church, the Church and the people in it need to rebuild rooted in faith. The Church will bloom if the faith is rooted in the Christian principles and doctrines and which should be the basis of the slogan, “Nagaland for Christ.” No other shallow and formless Christian sounding image, but the faith image can stand the test of changing times and realities.
More than the need to review NLTP Act, it is high time to review the (un)Christian slogan Nagaland for Christ.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
