Dimapur, August 4 (MExN): Tetso College, Dimapur, organised a webinar on ‘Participatory Democracy – Activism as Tool for Critical Engagement,’ in the “challenging local, regional, national, and global context within which the Nagas are struggling to find its feet.”
According to a press release from the college, the webinar was moderated by Dr Aniruddha Babar; a political scientist, lawyer and an expert in International Law and attended by students from different parts of Nagaland, faculty members and respected members of the society.
During the webinar, resource person James Pochury, a program officer from an International NGO in New Delhi, spoke about necessity of political activism and how it is relevant to a present day situation where “Naga society has been trapped in a complex socio-political conundrum,” the release stated.
He emphasized on the need of peaceful political activism within the legal framework to claim and reclaim the legal and constitutional rights. He also spoke on social transformation and social development in the present day Naga context while critically examining why it is necessary to “positively transform the unjust and unequal power structures and systems that perpetuate the status quo - where the powerful (elected) become even more powerful and the powerless Naga masses (the electors) become perennially powerless.”
Pochury also spoke on the need to “actively promote social and economic justice, where a win-win equation is a non-negotiable principle - asserted, demanded and enjoyed by an alert and conscious Naga citizenry.” This, he said, is fulfilled by a transparent and accountable governance system that is embedded in Naga ethos, expressed in Naga democratic socialism.
“We cannot take on the powerful status-quoists with the same mindset that created the problem in the first place. We must become powerful to take on the powerful through counter-hegemony,” he concluded.
