The prevailing economic, political and social state of affair in Nagaland is taking an awfully worrisome turn of events towards a total infrastructural collapse. Are the once proud people known as the honest, honourable, brave Nagas becoming a spineless flock of unquestioning sheep being led to the slaughter? The multitudes of self-proclaimed paper tiger intellectuals, consisting of both young and old, silently roaring within the safe confines of their inner common room or within the restricted confines of social media groups...where AK 47 is not a threat...seems to be the fashion of the day while the general public slumber in total complacency, oblivious to their reality. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly, now having shed its accountable public responsibility and moral conscience in the absence of the Opposition Bench, has made an absolute mockery of governance by casually writing off the scathing CAG report on corruption against almost all the major Departments of the Government of Nagaland. During the Budget Secession, the serious charges of corruption graphically brought to light have been casually brushed aside without any substantive discussion or effort to redress the blatant anomalies pointed out therein. The message is ominously clear. Rather than clean up the corruptive mess, our elected representatives have declared an open season to go on a free for all financial rampage to recuperate their election investments. Their 'not very honourable' intent will gladly be facilitated by many a happy band of unquestioning, compliant bureaucrats/technocrats patiently waiting like vultures perched on the fence for every questionable self-serving instructions floating down from the political table for them to execute and claim their own pound of flesh in the process. We are entering yet another year of possible 'development' of a very personal kind. In the absence of the Opposition Bench, the situation warrants an appeal to the Supreme Court to act as our conscience keeper by setting up SIT under its direct supervision to address the corruption charges brought out by the CAG report and clean up our financial mess. ACAUT should perhaps act as a responsible watchdog and seriously consider this option as the last bastion of public conscience.
Take a dispassionate look at the steady decline of our Naga prestige and sensibility. In the theatre of Naga Political Movement, the canvas is smeared with utter irrational chaos. The tall yardstick pronounced by the NSCN (IM) for a negotiated settlement at the Prime Ministerial level in a 3rd Country has come down to the level of a negotiation between a political non-entity Mr. Ravi (Interlocutor) and the NSCN (IM) in India's backyard. This is being followed by a mad mindless rush of our irresponsible elected representatives, Naga Ho Ho and other gullible Civil Societies blindly endorsing the "Framework Agreement" without knowing absolutely anything about its content. The Party in Power harps on being a facilitator without facilitating anything substantial towards the peace process and carry on with their worthless debate on "Equi-closeness" and "Equi-distance" policy. Of course it must be said that 'equi-closeness' camp have been harvesting rich dividend in terms of crores of rupees through their close friendly disposition while ''equi-distance'' campers had only harvested bullets for their unapproachable policy. But none of the political parties have dared to take the initiative to conduct a true public consultation by getting back to our customary roots to resolve the real will of the people and deal with this cancerous problem of money driven disunity extenuated by egocentric madness within the NPG leadership.
Everything is boiling down to a crazy money power, be it in the over-ground set up or within the NNM. On the issue of imposition of unabated multiple taxation by our "sovereignty hunting" brothers and sisters-in-arms, the ground reality has taken a turn for the worst. In a recent market survey conducted by ACAUT to assess the ground reality impact in its campaign against unabated taxation, it was observed that there was a marked scaling down of various abominable taxation structures. For instance the mafia "Syndicate" and the "monopolistic dealership" system has now been dismantled. The 'five-layered' taxation earlier being imposed on the same commodity starting from: (1) the State entry gates (Newfield & Delai Gates); (2) the godown (warehouse) tax; (3) the wholesaler's tax; (4) the retail-end shop tax and finally (5) the annual tax have now been reduced to only a solitary "Annual Tax". However, despite this reduction, the fact on the ground does not indicate equivalent reduction in the price of commodities in the market. The simple truth is that there has been a dramatic overhaul in the rules of engagement in the 'tax collection game' being played by our NPGs. In the past each Faction had been protecting their 'tax turf' with absolute viciousness...eliminating one another in the process. If the readers recall, on 24th February 2016 five of the NPGs of Nagaland had issued a joint statement in relation to the "Framework Agreement" and the awareness campaign that our elected representatives were conducting in Delhi without knowing anything about the 'agreement'. Perhaps less attention was paid to what they had to say but the real focus was more on this collective initiative that had spawned a general hope that it would further lead to the ultimate unity of all the NPGs of Nagaland for a final stand. As it turned out however, this collective picture seems to have been intended for an entirely different purpose. Earlier we had 7(seven) factions extorting "sovereignty tax". Now they seem to have all come to a working understanding not to fight one other in the matter of their respective factional tax collection. In the fertile land of Presidents and Prime Ministers, the tax collecting groups have mushroomed to 10 (ten) 'glorious' Factions : 1. NSCN (IM); 2. GPRN/NSCN (U); 3. NSCN (R); 4. NSCN (K); 5. NNC/FGN(Accordist Adino group); 6. NNC(Non-Accordist Kiumukun group); 7. NPGN/NNC(Non-Accordist Temjenyanger group); 8. NNC (Nagi group) and 9. FGN (Shingya group). Isn't it ironic?! The people of Nagaland have been crying out hoarse, desperately appealing to all the NPGs of Nagaland to unite and hammer out the final Indo-Naga solution together for all times to come. Well, at least in the common matter of their abnormal "sovereign greed tax"/ extortion, our National vultures are now united and strongly poised to strip off the flesh of the helpless beleaguered public. Each Faction now has free access to all the tax zones in the commercial hub of Dimapur, unimpeded or threatened by other factions. The sole "Annual Tax" has therefore brought no relief to the market due to complete lack of family planning within the NNM setup. The equally damaging 'joker of the pack', if not more, is the omnipresent Government of Nagaland which forms the 10th Faction. It has multiple sub-factions within its fold like the Police faction, the Forest faction, the Excise faction, the Transport faction, the Veterinary & Animal Husbandry faction not forgetting the DMC faction, all playing hyper active role to raise their personal revenue at each State entry gates and everywhere else in one happy family. Without doubt Nagaland is truly a "Land of Tax Festival" being celebrated every waking hour of the day. In fact many are forced to celebrate even at nights.
This ruthlessly depraved 'tax tournament' between the NPGs and between NPGs and the State Government has devastated the economy of the common man in the State. Even the fledgling young entrepreneurs struggling to set roots are not spared the brunt of this merciless taxation while their parents desperately scrape the earth to make ends meet. Despite such dismal state of affair with extreme provocations on all fronts we the people opt to remain silent and allow evil to entrench itself deeper and deeper with each passing day.
On this subject of unabated tax issue, the High Power Committee (HPC) had worked sincerely and submitted its candid report/recommendations to the Government which would mitigate and minimise the financial burden of the citizens. The HPC has thus far maintained a dignified silence in the hope that the State Government will eventually act on it. It however is getting awfully apparent and clear that the Government has no intention of acting since this report has been left in a cold storage collecting dust for almost a year now. For the present here is a glimpse of one important recommendation made by the HPC which generally says:
In order to keep the balance between right and wrong and the scale of justice on an even keel the HPC full heartedly recommend that Lokayukta be seriously considered for establishment in the State of Nagaland to tackle the rampant corruption in the governing system. It is now up to the right thinking people of Nagaland to stand up together and stop this unsavoury journey.
Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
Upper Forest Colony;
Kohima, Nagaland.
