DIMAPUR, JUNE 13 (MExN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) on Tuesday announced that it is withdrawing the FIR filed in connection with the demolishing of its office at Naga Club building on May 27 last after consultations with seniors and its federating units and sub-ordinate bodies.
The Federation also said it will resume its normal office functioning along with the All Nagaland college Students’ Union (ANCSU at the Naga Club building.
The decision comes after the appeal made by the Angami Public Organization (APO) and the Kohima Village Council (KVC) on June 7 asking the Federation to “withdraw the FIR soonest possible as a good gesture to find an amicable solution.”
In a press statement detailing its stand on the issue, the Federation, through its president and general secretary, requested “not to misconstrue this decision as a sign of weakness,” but rather of upholding the resolution adopted at the emergency consultative meeting held on May 30 that this decision is being taken with the “deepest faith and trust in the wisdom of the APO and KVC for which it reposed full trust and confidence.”
The Federation also sought to clarify on what it termed as “continued peddling of half truth and half lies” to mislead the Naga people and polarize their thoughts by those claiming to be leaders of the Naga Club.
Responding to statements made by Kuilochalie Seyie, president of Naga Club, in a recent interview with a news channel that the NSF had never met them in the last 7 years, the Federation asserted that it was through the meetings between some members of the ad-hoc Naga Club and the then officials of NSF on several occasions that the proposal to celebrate the 100 years of Naga Club together was mooted.
After due consultations with the stakeholders, the NSF officials met the then chairman of the ad-hoc Naga Club, Krurovi Peseyie in the month of March at his residence in Jotsoma where he clearly mentioned that Naga Club will celebrate only for the tribes of Nagaland State, it stated.
It was due to this stark contrast in the concepts of celebrating the occasion that the ad-hoc Naga Club and NSF could not organize the occasion, the Federation stated. It therefore questioned how Seyie can claim that the ad-hoc Naga club is for the entire Nagas without borders and that NSF had never met them.
On the ‘notice to vacate’ and claim that the NSF paid Rs. 500/- (five hundred only) in rent for the month of April 1983 on 07.04.1983 after which no house rent was paid from May 1983 till date, the Federation questioned how it can pay rent from May 1983 till whichever date to an organization which was formed only in 2017/18.
Reiterating that the Naga Club belongs to all the Naga people and that no individual or group can claim ownership of the same, the Federation said the Naga issue, the Naga political history and the resulting rights of the Naga people cannot be owned nor inherited by some individuals.
“The NSF has always been honoring our ancestors who laid the foundation of the Naga nationhood, for which NSF is a proud descendent, however, the present Naga Club which is not recognized by the Naga people was formed suddenly in 2017/18 with ulterior motives to hijack a certain planned celebration of the NSF which was not even in their thoughts then.”
It also viewed that the present Naga Club is un-mandated and that the Naga people as a whole should decide the relevance of its existence in the present context and that a proper Naga Club should be re-constituted, based on the foundation of the Memorandum that was submitted to the Simon Commission in 1929.
The NSF said it “leave the matter to the best wisdom of the Nagas and the APO as the messenger of Peace to uphold the legacy of the Naga club and bring the Naga people together in the true spirit of the memorandum submitted to the Simon commission by the Naga Club in 1929.”
