‘Nagas will be happy to pay one tax for one united movement’
DIMAPUR, MAY 31 (MExN): The Christian Forum Dimapur today extended its support to civil society organizations in their struggle against illegal taxation. “Taxation is a common concern”, stated a press note from the forum issued and signed by Rev. L Bizo (Chairman), Rev. Dr. P. Dozo (Vice-chairman), Rev. Fr. Chacko. K (Secretary), Rev. N. Paphino (Member), Rev. Dr. Weyiete Lohe (Member) and Rev. Moses Murry (Member).
According to the forum, it was generally accepted that “Nagas have a common goal and future, one group seeking and struggling to become a nation state among the nations of the world community”. In spite of a professed unity of purpose so loudly proclaimed, forum lamented on what it described as the “chaotic taxation issue”, which it stated was “pregnant with corrupt practices, lapses, excess, threat, intimidation and extortionistic tactics, none which are Christian and therefore unacceptable to any who stands by the slogan Nagaland for Christ”.
The Christian Forum Dimapur has pointed out that much of the things will become “simpler and understandable when different Naga political groups begin to struggle together by reconciling the differences, share the best possible modality, and talk to the GOI in one voice”. “The churches and the civil society organization and the public will be happy to pay one tax for one united movement in the best interest of all the Nagas in all Naga areas”, it stated. Otherwise, a question that remains unanswered according to the forum was whether the civil societies and the public in all villages and town are really “obliged under God to pay multiple taxes to multiple Naga Groups numbering as eight as reported, struggling for Naga sovereignty”.
The press note has also reminded all those who are involved in the “unjust ways of amassing wealth that they will meet the day of reckoning”.
The Christian Forum has quoted Amos 2: 6-8 in order to make its point clear. “Yahweh says this, Because Israel has sinned, not once, but three times and even more, I will not relent. They sell the just for money and the needy for a pair of sandals; They tread on the head of the poor and trample them upon the dust of the earth, while they silence the right of the afflicted, a man and his father to go to the same woman to profane my holy name, they stretch out upon garments taken in pledge, beside every altar, they take the wine of those they swindle and are drunk in the house of their God” (Amos 2.6-8)
