Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 27
An interactive seminar – described by the venerable peace activist Niketu Iralu as a “response of the Naga youth (especially of Diphupar) to the deteriorating crisis created by the Naga political struggle that our people face at this stage” – was held at Agri Expo site here today.
Organized by the Diphupar Naga Students’ Union (DNSU), six speakers – one each from the NBCC, ACAUT, GPRN/NSCN, NSCN (IM), and Niketu Iralu and Leonard P Aier, the principal of City Law College, Dimapur – were invited to interact with an audience of college and higher secondary students. Interestingly, the NSCN (IM) representative(s) missed the interactive seminar today because of, according to the organizers, “some unavoidable circumstances.”
The purpose behind the seminar, in the words of the DNSU president Sakulemba Jamir, was to provide a better perspective on “the mixture of assumptions” that confront the present generation of Nagas.
“This interaction is your call to our fragmenting, insecure people at this stage not to lose sight of our common ground in order that we may understand its value and built on it together,” as put by Niektu Iralu, while expanding on the DNSU’s idea of a common ground.
‘I believe your thinking reflects the thinking of the youth of Dimapur and this is a most encouraging assessment for me. As I see it, the theme of today’s seminar is saying that our people’s struggle to defend our identity, as understood by us, is our Common Ground and that we are to make it our common strength,” he shared.
Iralu underscored the importance of such a pursuit for common ground at a time “when some people are questioning its very existence.” He reasoned that any struggle or movement not subject to examination becomes impossible to pursue, in the long run.
Today Nagas can, without any self-righteous persuasions, say that we are facing a crisis of destructiveness, he said.
The first step towards righting any wrong would be to begin a process of introspection, Iralu suggested. “Today we Nagas need to find out what is making us angry?”
This way, he said, the “explosion of blaming one another, the temperature, will come down” and pave way for more truthful assessment.
Noah’s Ark and the Titanic
Leonard P Aier, a former fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force and currently principal of City Law College, Dimapur likened the Common Ground to that of Noah’s Ark in the Bible – “the Ark that saved humanity.”
He cited another famous vessel, the Titanic and reminded how it got submerged into the sea because of the negligence of some of the members of the crew. “Yes today, we may be sinking but we are not sunk.”
Aier also underscored the message that any society that fails to deliver justice to its people will never come to enjoy stability. “The first virtue of any social institution is justice.” He admitted that “me and my contemporaries at various helms of affair” have failed to guide the younger generation and lamented that they have rather been “exploited” and led to “darkness.”
“If we do not wake up now, if we do not do something, the future generation will curse our inaction. And they must curse us because we have failed to provide them a secure future,” he said.
‘Where is the
Common Ground?’
Moa Walling, secretary to the Collective Leadership of the GPRN/NSCN, wondered whether there could really be a meeting place, as demanded by the ACAUT slogan of one government, one tax.
He reasoned that for the various Naga political groups to come to a meeting place, the Naga public must unite amongst themselves first. “Where is the meeting place when the public itself is divided,” he questioned.
Walling felt that coming together was only the beginning. “If we can hold on, that is progress. And if we can work it out then that is success,” he shared.
‘A great insult to Naga people’
Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) reiterated its repeated stand that it was not anti-Naga at all. “We represent the voice of the people. We are not under any Ministry of agency. It will be a great insult to the Naga people if such accusations go on and on,” ACAUT co-convener, Joel Kath said.
He said that the ACAUT’s “greatest achievement” was not in fighting the menace of unabated taxation and corruption but in awakening the collective conscience of the Naga people. Kath also said that Nagas born in the 1960s and 70s – and before that – have an emotional attachment to the Naga freedom movement. But those of the later vintage do not have that perspective and attachment.
“So before it’s too late, before the emotional attachment dries up, please come together to unify – because your ideologies are same – and solve the Naga political issue. Win the minds of the people, of the younger generation and go win our freedom,” he said in a message from ACAUT to the NPGs.
‘NBCC not custodian of NLTP Act’
Rev Dr Z Keyho, vice-principal of the Oriental Theological Seminary and the NBCC general-secretary-in-waiting, said that the Nagaland Baptist Church Council has been misunderstood against its stand on the dry law.
“Of late the NBCC has been misunderstood. The NBCC is not the custodian of the NLTP Act,” he said while adding that the Baptist body has not “naively believed that getting that Act passed will solve alcohol related problems” in Nagaland.
“NBCC has always been clear about her position. We will continue to urge the government to strengthen the Act and not only give lip service.”
He maintained that the Church would be the first to admit that it has “failed many times” despite its best effort to work on “teaching and caring.” But it doesn’t give us reasons to lift the Act, Keyho asserted.
He also made it clear that the NBCC was in no position to point fingers at anyone “because when government fails, we all fail. Legislation without willpower is anathema, in other words – suicidal.”
Keyho said that the NBCC’s stand was clear. “There are some things in life that are worth fighting for in life. And the NLTP Act one of such things.”
The arguments against the dry law, like revenue and individual freedom, can “sometimes be irrational,” the Reverend felt. “What revenue and freedom are we talking about when young minds are destroyed, generations after generations are captive to addictive elements and there are broken families and marriages?”
The Church, he said, cannot just “sit and say que sera sera – what will be, will be.” If we have to argue on freedom then let there be no governments and let there be no laws, Keyho said.
He maintained that the NLTP Act was “noble in motive” and that the will to succeed must prevail over an “easy exit.”
