• Urges Nagaland State Government to be more responsible and accountable to public
• Laments that each Naga National Political Group has sidetracked the genuine path of Naga political aspiration at the cost of Naga unity
DIMAPUR, JUNE 16 (MExN): Taking strong stance on the statement made by NSCN (IM) against ACAUT Nagaland on June 13, the Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) on Thursday urged NSCN (IM) not to “contaminate the Naga democratic ideals with such alien cultures of threat and ban rather than its promotions.”
“…Not to be intimidated and threatened by others, Nagas have been pursuing political aspiration and therefore such bullying is a borrowed culture and it misfits the nomenclature of national group,” NTC chastised NSCN (IM) in a press statement issued by its Media Cell.
The NTC reminded the NSCN (IM) and all concerned that the Naga public had a single Plebiscite of 1951 to support Naga National Movement for Sovereignty, “This historical referendum was for a united movement under the aegis of NNC. Beside the Plebiscite of 1951, Nagas had not given any mandate to any political group including NSCN (IM) at any point of time.”
Unfortunately, the NTC noted, “we have fragmented ourselves into tiny islands branding each island to be a nation is itself making a mockery of our aspiration and to the delight of our adversaries.”
As consequence, the NTC lamented that each Naga National Political Group (NNPG) including NSCN (IM) has sidetracked the genuine path of Naga political aspiration at the cost of Naga unity and embroiled in pathetic factional and petty politics which includes coercive taxation on the common man.
Usurping the Naga National Movement, each group has forced its un-mandated tax on the Nagas of Nagaland is antithesis to Naga political aspiration, it stated.
NTC envisaged that had there been a united movement led by a single organization and patronized by the Nagas as prior to the advent of fragmentation; we would not have grown weary and tired even in paying tax.
Nevertheless, the NTC questioned, “how long the Nagas of Nagaland are expected to remain silent when we are unable to survive economically because of the massive illegal taxation calamity.”
Being unbearable and uninhabitable under such taxation menace, the NTC recalled how a mass movement started in 2013 in the name of ACAUT against disunity amongst the Naga national workers and their taxation and the same continues on the basis of resolutions adopted by the general public.
While implementing the resolutions, the ACAUT is found intimidated by NSCN (IM) in the language “…why not befitting actions against them (ACAUT) should not be initiated,” it stated, while reminding that “the Naga National Movement is for self determination and not for self threat.”
The NTC also sought to stress that NSCN (IM) is not alone to be blamed for the perpetual division, but all NNPGs are responsible for the public to come together and resolved not to pay tax to any group till they are united.
It is therefore not agreeable that factions have “absolute sovereign rights to impose and collect taxation” while the contentious issue to pay tax or not to pay tax will remain so long division exists and it will disappear when they are united, it stated.
Meanwhile, the NTC has urged upon the State Government to become responsible and accountable to the general public and discipline its employees to function within the prescribed parameters.
“The Chief Minister who is the head of the State and the Chief Secretary, the head of bureaucracy seemed to be oblivious of their subordinate bureaucrats collecting percentage deduction from salary component as agents of NNPGs, which is a crime and punishable under the law,” it stated.
The present day government lacks not only transparency but also lacks in functioning under established systems and norms, it added.
