Morung Express News Kohima | March 6 The Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA) members who were at the forefront of a legal battle for 33% reservation of seats for women in Urban Local Bodies in Nagaland State said today that they received death and rape threats for their stance. “We faced death threats and rape threats,” said Rosemary Dzüvichü, Advisor to the NMA, during a press conference called by the NMA here today. As violence engulfed Kohima on February 2, they were told that their residences would also be burned. Women leaders in other districts also faced threats of sexual violence, death and public humiliations, stated the NMA today. Thereby, some of the women groups were compelled to dissociate from the NMA—they were given the ‘choice’ either to disassociate from the apex body or the NMA. “The unfortunate part is you have a government that is able to protect itself with so much manpower. We were the ones with absolutely no security,” said the NMA leaders. Despite the accusations, condemnations, and death threats, however, the NMA was grateful to those who believed in their rights. However, they questioned the silence of intellectuals and leaders who, despite knowing wrongs and rights, chose to remain silent. The silence of the church accumulated so much that by the time NBCC took a step, it was too late, viewed Dzüvichü. Lamenting that people wrongly assumed that NMA was fighting against men, NMA President Abeiü Meru said, “We are just fighting for our rights. Time has changed and we should also change with the times. Some people feel that NMA is destroyed, but NMA will stand and will stay because the concerns for our society are from the heart.” Motive & intent The NMA explained that “Reservation is not an Indian mechanism, but an international, UN mechanism,” but there was “so much use of politics” that “we were literally made scapegoats.” NMA Advisor Rosemary Dzüvichü stated that “There has been so much of misunderstanding about the motive and intent of Naga women especially on the court case. We are hoping now with the new government and the new Chief Minister that dialogues will begin. As far as we are concerned we still stand by the law. If there are initiatives to amend the Act and change the law, then perhaps we will also reconsider and understand.” The NMA further clarified that it sought withdrawal of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) on January 30 with the idea that it should be filed before the elections because “that was the promise we made to the tribal bodies.” The NMA remained hopeful that the Supreme Court will consider the withdrawal because an interim order is already given. “Over the weeks we noticed whether in social media or papers everyone seemed to be targeting the NMA as though we had no consultations with anyone. As you are well aware from our statement, we had series of consultations which lasted for many hours,” reminded Dzüvichü. She acknowledged that the consultations had led to appeals from different tribal bodies for women to “accept nomination.” “But the fact is that here we are speaking of a law which is already there and the decision of the different women organizations was that even if we did accept the nominations any other third party could actually take the women and the government back to the court. We had legal consultations and it was very obvious that since the Act was not amended or changed to suit nominations, any percentage of nomination which the women took, whatever it is we could have again landed all the parties back to the court. And having spent six years in a court, we were not at all in the frame of mind to go back for another legal battle. That was one of the main reasons why people have not understood why Naga women leaders have not accepted the nomination,” she explained. Further, she maintained, “If the Act was changed to such a nomenclature, maybe women would have considered. But at that point of time it wasn’t and it still isn’t. Refusing 50 percent nomination or refusing the offer of the tribe hohos actually is really an irrelevant matter.”
