WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE ME, WHO AM I TO JUDGE YOU?

Dear citizens of Nagaland, the Naga Bloggers dedicate the below two articles to you

Dedicated to all the NOSY Naga girls/guys looking out for JUICY gossip, rumours and judging others
1 Thessalonians 4:11 -
 
... "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!"
Quit being the moral police patrolling around your NOTUN BOSTI neighbourhood and snooping into your neighbour's bedroom/kitchen discussions!!
As long as you go around pointing out people’s faults, judging, being critical and condemning others, you will never REACH your highest POTENTIAL in LIFE! Matthew 7:1 says, Judge Not so that you won’t be judged. This is in perfect harmony with Issac Newton’s 3rd law of motion that brought about all the great machinery and inventions of our times – “For every Action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”.
It is also sad that this judgemental attitude is pretty evident in theologians and people pursuing Bible studies. Their Holier than Thou attitude brings out a stark contrast against Jesus’ attitude towards the lady who committed adultery. Jesus was teaching one day at the temple when the religious leaders dragged out a lady whom they claimed had committed adultery and that SHE should be STONED to Death (Watch the movie “The Stoning of Soraya”). Jesus SIMPLY IGNORED THEM!! With this simple action, we see How powerful SILENCE is! We learn that If we are always judgemental, finding faults in others and pointing fingers at others, God won’t even pay heed to your prayers and press the IGNORE button on you! Especially among Nagas, you go around saying “Oh she is a woman of loose character”, “He has a mistress”, “Oh, I’m so glad I am walking in the right path, I am BETTER than her, I’m better than HIM” etc, and Judging those around you to make yourself feel better! Before you gossip about another girl, before you criticize a drunkard father, before you judge your neighbours for quarrelling every day, FIRST! You don’t know what they feel inside, you only see what they express OUTSIDE because of the pain they feel inside! We tend to forget to that there are people who have suffered more than we can imagine! While the woman was lying down at Jesus’ feet, the priests and those judgemental people surrounded them, shouting accusations and saying she should be stoned for her SINS! Jesus simply replied, “Those of you who are without any sin, may come forward and throw the stone!” None came forward! These religious leaders were NOT in the church preaching, nor were they out in the streets feeding the POOR and NEEDY. NO, they were busy looking out for the latest gossips about affairs and digging into people’s personal lives. Not only religious leaders but even amongst us, we tend to seldom GOSSIP and find faults in others, look for somebody to CONDEMN!! Don’t we have work to do? Get productive? Learn new things, technology, software etc gain knowledge and incorporate those in our lives and improve our community?
1 Thessalonians 4:11 - Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business!(Dig not into other’s personal life, just look at your own first before pointing that finger. We got bigger and better things to do in LIFE than gossip! Small minds discuss people, medium minds discuss events, GREAT MINDS DISCUSS IDEAS! So which one are you??
 
Understanding tax and the 'tax' menace.

The dictionary defines tax as 'Charge against a citizen's person or property or activity for the support of government'. At first, as citizens of India we pay various taxes directly and indirectly. In Nagaland though we are exempted from paying Income Taxes we stil have to pay service tax, sales tax both forthe state(NST) and the centre (CST), professional tax etc. Next comes the various cess that we pay like the 2% education cess that we pay on our telephone bills which funds the SSA and the RMSA money. Some more taxes can be Tax on minerals and forests products, vechicular tax collected by the transport Dept., customs duty, excise duties, electricity tax, octroi etc. (Some states in India collect tax if you install a power genset in a commercial building.) Then comes the various corporation/municipality taxes, the ones collected by DMC at the moment. All these are the legal taxes that we Nagas pay at present except we do not pay Property tax and Income tax. The DMC has tax for personal bicycles(annually?) rickshaws, thela and autorickshaws daily. Then thay have the DMC entry tax for goods vehicles and taxis. Next they have tax for the butchers, fishmongers, pavement vegetable vendors and maybe the coolies/labourers too.
Next comes the not so legal collections from the various Unions and Associations. It is legal if it is voluntary but not so if it is forced. Dimapur Auto Drivers Union(DADU)- a registered trade union if I am not mistaken that collects regularly, All India Petroleum Transport something something Union collects daily from trucks and other carriers. Then comes the taxi drivers union, the truck drivers union, truck owners union, labourers union, thela pullers union, rickshaw pullers union, xerox operators association, motor garage owners association, hotels and restaurants association, vegetable suppliers union, medicine wholesellers union. you name it and its there. Many join these unions/association on their own volition and they work to help and assist each other and their collections are mostly annual or monthly in some case. But those activities of the low rung ones nevertheless big in terms of numbers are forced to join these unions and many a times the leaders/volunteers of these unions have someone in one of the factions as a protector. And very sadly they have to pay regularly both to the DMC and to the various unions. Then there are also more entry tax collected from commercial vehicles when venturing out of DMC areas, e.g. the adhoc town councils in areas beyond DMC jurisdictions. We also have to accept that the Police check post do collect a lot. I overheard that the weekly target of Chumukedima check post was nearly a 90k, imagine how much it must be for new field check post.
Next comes the UG tax starting right from New Field gate. It seems it is Rs.10k-30k for any goods truck to enter inside. Now the increase in the number of factions have worsened the situation. For any organisation a good economic stronghold is the key to assist them in achieving many of their goals. Our UGs quickly learned about it and where else but Dimapur was the key to achieve it. Now we know nothing runs without them out here in Dimapur. We also need to understand that the corruption that was prevalent before they took control was continued if not more. Those days supply was the reason for price rise these days 'tax' is the reason for it. But what Dimapur is facing for the last few years is the menace of the so-called tax which the other factions too have learned and the eyes of all the factions are fixed now on Dimapur. The uncertainty factor especially for the business community has risen. Being good businessman requires coming to a settlement and when we think it is taken care of then another faction's letter arrives. Then comes the calendar sale from the factions and the DMC. Atleast the student Unions have stoped donation drives and selling calendars. Next comes those who collect tax in the guise of the factions, or the 'un-authorised' collections most of the times by friends & families of someone who is in a faction.  The tax continues to the households too through the village/colony councils. The annual sanitation tax that the DMC collects. Then the Army rations, household tax, soul tax, identity cards for Non-locals all from 2-3 factions.

(The Naga Blog was  created in 2007 by  Yanpvuo Kikon. This  column
in the Morung  Express will be a weekly  feature  every Saturday)