It pricked my conscience to read the assertion of Qhevihe Chishi Swu, Convenor, Steering Committee, IM,that “it is a great sin to not pay tax to IM”.
Well to begin with, let us be reminded of the scripture when Jesus explained, give to Caeser what is Caeser’s and to God what belongs to God.
Does Q. Chishi intend to say that IM is either Caeser or God that Naga people must pay them tax obligingly without question or else a great sin is being committed?
The present Naga society reeling under the burden of excessive taxations by various Naga underground groups alongside every day corruptions in public office especially in Nagaland state which is considered as one of the most corrupted state in India.
At the juncture where the mass revolt is churning against Naga UGs and the genuine Naga struggle for sovereignty is on the verge of getting repudiated by our own people solely for reasons of coercive taxations, materialistic pursuits, greed and highhandedness of the Naga armed groups, the statement of Q.Chishi rather comes as another self-righteous authoritarian imposition on the people instead of finding appropriate means and ways to alleviate the mass sufferings and to co-relate with the people.
Multiple Taxation by Underground groups- Besides using Gun barrel to enforce taxation, the manipulative modus-operandi of imposing multiple taxes on a particular commodity do causes unprecedented market inflation.
Monopoly of market by owning wholesales and dealerships, fixing and re-fixing of prices at their conveniences, imposition of entry and exit taxations on every goods carriages all over the state apart from taxing goods in the carriage, levying go-down(ware house) tax and finally taxing the retail shops. A single commodity is thus taxed five to six times before it finally reaches the consumers. Tampering of price tags, adulteration of qualities and reduction of quantities (re-packing)etc all of these illicit activities are done with active collaboration of UGs who are either business partners or commissions agents of these market mafias.
Dimapur has become the breeding ground of these anti-people practices where almost all the supplies of the state are brought in, stocked and distributed to various districts.
Similarly it must be revealed that while other groups reasonably accepts whatever bargain the contractors/suppliers and State Government offices offers, however, it is the standing Ahza of IM that their share is always rigidly non-negotiable as per the higher directive. Is that how you work for your own people always enforcing your own group’s interest without bothering to understand the plight of the innocent Naga victims?. Can’t you read the clear writings in the walls, the seething anger of the Nagas against your set-up?
Whose sin is greater, the sinner or the one resisting the sin? Even greater is the sin to force the people to partake in the acts of sinning along with the sinner.
The ACAUT campaign for “One Government one Tax” primarily sprang up because of the entire market monopoly and multiple taxation by IM especially in Dimapur and it’s adverse affects on the common people, thereby affecting even the Naga government genuinely fighting the aggressor India and Myanmar for people’s sovereignty.
On the self-proclamation of IM as the only authentic political organisation of the people, let it be known that, the then undivided Nagas under NNC concurred in 1951 Plebiscite affirming the Sovereign, Independence of the Nagas as “people and nation”, hence any successive off shots that do not subscribe to this basic national principle may never claim authenticity or legitimacy over all or any section of the people.
Qhevihe Chishi must in all his sanity recall his own Ato Kilonser Th.Muivah’s declaration before the Nagas that Sovereignty and Integration is impossible in the present scheme of things.
Therefore, rather than hypocritically attempting to impose self-acclaimed legitimacy devoid of popular mass mandate and to autocratically enforce it’s tax regime on the Nagas, it must be incumbent of them to seek people’s support to bring about logical conclusion to their festering secretive peace talks with GOI although without Sovereignty.
Isak Sumi
