Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 24
Nagaland is headed for a standoff over the contentious ‘Backward Tribe’ job reservation policy of the state government. On May 24, the 5 tribes Committee on Review of Reservation Policy announced that it will be compelled to launch a democratic agitation if the government ignores it demands.
The committee is composed of the Ao, Sema, Lotha, Angami and Rengma. It was formed in August 2023 to push for review of what is alleged to be an unfair job reservation policy in the government sector that has had the aforementioned 5 tribes in a disadvantageous situation.
Despite attempts to make the government understand their argument, it held that the government has turned a deaf ear. “We have had several meetings and we have submitted our representation to the government. However, government has not responded,” Committee Convenor, Tesinlo Semy told the press following a meeting in Chümoukedima on May 24.
According to the committee, it had submitted a representation to the government in September 2024 to which it got no response. It followed up with a 30-day ultimatum on April 26, 2025, which is set to expire on May 26.
Semy said that if the government does not respond within the 30-day deadline, the Committee has decided to launch a phased agitation. The decision was taken at the meeting, today, in Chümoukedima, which was termed as a consultative meeting of all the 5 tribes’ hohos, youth organisations and students bodies. The first phase would likely be confined to the headquarters of the districts dominated by the 5 tribes.
Member Secretary of the Committee, Capt GK Zhimomi, said that the state government’s job reservation policy has not been reviewed in almost 50 years. The prevailing job reservation policy took effect in 1977, with a caveat for review every 10 years. However, Zhimomi said that it was not reviewed in 1987.
In 1989, he said that the government issued a directive stating that the then prevailing job reservation policy will continue unchanged until further orders. “It is continuing till today,” he added.
Over the years, he said that student organisations have taken up the matter vis-à-vis the continuation of the policy without review, internal reservation and the contentious ‘creamy layer.’ “But the government, for the reasons best known to them has kept dilly-dallying on the issue and has not addressed the issue so far,” he said.
Either scrapping the existing policy or reserving the remaining unreserved/general job quota exclusively for the five tribes is the core demand of the committee.
According to Zhimomi, the government has been making contradictory statements. He said that the latest was on May 14 when the state government spokesperson, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Power, KG Kenye, reportedly told that the reservation policy will not be reviewed until the national Census is carried. “Now, you all know that the census is due since 2021 and we don't know when it is going to be held. We just cannot wait for that census to happen,” he held.
The committee was asked how reviewing the job reservation policy is going to resolve or impact the myriad of development issues the state is facing. “That we will leave it for another time,” was the response.
