In his article “Do we have the courage?”(Nagaland Post and Morung, May 30,2013), my brother Khekiye has rightly pointed out that it is the Naga public who are suffering the consequences of the national taxes imposed on all the goods entering Nagaland from outside the state. For example whereas formerly we used to get twelve tamuls for Rs 10, now we have to pay Rs 20 to get only ten tamuls. Mitha pata pan has also jumped from Rs 2 to Rs 7 now, I am told. This skyrocketing of prizes of commodities from tamuls to dry fish to meat to dal to rice to building materials etc is happening because of the taxes imposed by six national groups as goods enter Nagaland through Dimapur. (To my knowledge at least the parent NNC and Federal Government are not taxing any commodities from Dimapur entry points except requesting for freewill donations from various departments and individuals).
Whatever the case may be, though Nagaland State is supposed to be an only non tax paying country in the world (Except for professional tax), in actual reality, Naga citizens have become the most highly taxed nation in the world. After all, no country in the world is ever paying six government taxes plus professional tax to a so called guardian nation state.
As for those Indian traders in Dimapur who are often harassed by our national workers, when I asked some of them as to how much tax they are paying to the various factions, this is how they replied me: “We pay whatever they demand because we dare not argue with them. But we feel pity for the Naga public because whatever we have paid the “Bidormanukhan” have to be recovered again by raising the prices of our goods.” After all these Indian traders are not in Nagaland to do Good Samaritan works for Naga economic upliftment. I m aware that some of them have done some good works for Nagas, but for most of them, besides their mansions in Dimapur, they have also built bigger mansions in their own states with the horrendous profits they had gotten from doing business in Nagaland. They have done this by not only controlling the markets in Dimapur but also supplying every nook and corner of Nagaland with their goods. Presently, Naga economy is hopelessly in their grips.
That being the factual reality, though the Naga national workers may be thinking that they are only taxing Marwaries and Begolese etc in Dimapur, in actual fact, they are taxing all Nagas with their exorbitant taxes. Now, does that not mean that all the guns and cars and even mansions that some of our own national workers possess are common Naga property? This should be so for the simple reason that the Naga public have paid for them.
When I see all these rampant corruptions and extortions, I feel that a day of reckoning is soon coming for all those who have amassed wealth at the expense of the Naga public. Here, I do not mean just the guilty national workers but also all corrupt Nagaland State government officials and all corrupt businessman and contractors of Nagaland. When that day explodes in our faces, no policeman or army will ever be able to control Naga public fury. For the benefit of the guilty national workers, allow me to also pass this information to you. In my sixteen years of traveling all over Naga villages including those in the Eastern sector, this is what I have heard again and again from many villagers: “Itu manu khan (National workers), nation karone nohoi. Tai khan nizhie pocket karone aru faction karone kam kuri he ase. Tai kan tu bondook duri asie aru aza choli ase, itukarone kuli kam kuri ase. Kintu olop din pichie te ami khan he tai khan ke diekhai dibo.” After all political sympathy or cooperation cannot be won through terror tactics or intimidation. As for the many Naga businessmen whom I have met, after paying your demands for the sakes of their business and their own lives, as soon as you turn your backs on them they are cursing you from behind.
Dear national workers, in Naga beliefs, it is said that whosoever incurs the wrath and curse of others because of wrong doings never prosper in life. It is believed that even their posterity becomes damned.
Kaka D. Iralu
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