ACAUT responds to NSCN-IM’s remarks

Dimapur, June 15 : Reacting to NSCN-IM’s statement, “Condemn the extreme provocation hurled by the banned ACAUT,” in local dailies on June 13, ACAUT Nagaland said, accusing the ACAUT of ‘divide and kill the Naga movement’ agenda does not convince anyone but it is the factional groups which have divided and killed the Naga movement. The ACAUT advised that instead of engaging in self glorifying propaganda like ‘banning’ ACAUT, the NSCN-IM and the other factions should view ACAUT as an ally as it has been the “Safety-Valve;” pacifying public anger against the factions by channeling the anger into positive nationalism. “The ACAUT are not only champions of the anti-corruption agenda but we are propagators of Naga nationalism as well.” Media Cell, ACAUT Nagaland in a press note considered “factional taxations a serious domestic problem but the compulsive obsession of the NSCN-IM to link it with the ongoing Naga settlement is getting tiresome, especially the cooked up stories which everyone knows, even the ranks and files within the NSCN(IM) themselves know these to be false that ACAUT conniving with Indian establishment.” The ACAUT said it was not formed to oppose the NSCN-IM or any factions. “For what kind of people in their right minds would oppose the armed Naga organisations fighting for Naga sovereignty? When even the mighty Indian army has failed to eliminate the Naga armed groups, the NSCN-IM with some of the sharpest minds should not engage in petty talks that this and that Army General and retired bureaucrats helped form the ACAUT to OPPOSE the NSCN-IM. Such accusations, apart from being condescending toward people’s mental capacity to think for themselves, frustratingly undermines free expression.” “Rather, the NSCN-IM should accept the truth and the truth is, the ACAUT was birthed out of desperation; a desperation so deep-seated that 40,000 people left their fear psychosis for factional groups in their kitchens, and came out in the streets and adopted the slogan of “One Government One Tax” as the final solution to end all factional fights and factional taxes. Again, the Naga people being staunch nationalists, the GoI was urged to settle the Indo-Naga Issue- resolution No. 2- at the 31st October rally.” The ACAUT said it has no intention of scuttling the NSCN-IM settlement talks. “In fact, the ACAUT was one of the first to congratulate the Prime Minister of India for his sincere efforts to settle the Naga Issue when the Framework Agreement was announced.” The ACAUT said, “It has been harping on unity and inclusiveness as the only solution to the side-business called factionalism which no intelligent being can label as “extreme provocation of the ACAUT as pointed out.” “The ACAUT may be a ‘nuisance’ to the factions, but pointing out the menace of unabated taxation decidedly dividing the Naga movement into inconsequential factions having nightmarish consequences for the poor general people is not nuisance; since the issue isdeliberate suppression of Naga people’s right to live a dignified existenceby side-tracking the core issue of Naga sovereignty. So at the end, what is sovereignty to Nagas when the very same people whom the NSCN-IM is trying to liberate from India end up worst? Given the belligerent attitude, such is not far from the realm of possibilities.” The ACAUT suggested the NSCN-IM to begin to learn to live with dissensions, constructive oppositions and facts and reasons as it gears itself up for the settlement period as these are all democratic expressions. “Already, there is seething anger among the masses with the Naga factional groups, but remedial measures are few and far between.”