Recently the NSCN (IM) was at it again, brutally manhandling a Volunteer at Peducha area and shutting down all ongoing works on highway expansion. Reason... Sovereignty Tax (read EXTORTION). This incurred the wrath of the Kiruphema Youth Organisation (KYO) and the Angami Students’ Union (ASU), and rightly so, with the ACAUT right behind. Not a whimper out of the State Government... perhaps it had not officially received information, like in the ‘Pillai Sir’ criminal case!
Our memory is so short! A few years back the GoI-sponsored highway project through Chakhabama, Zunheboto, etc. was abandoned due to multiple commission/extortion by the concerned politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, etc. and various armed factions. To cover its misdeeds the State Government requested the Central Government to raise the construction value by an absurd percentage. Even the GoI, which is not bothered with the open loot here in Nagaland as long as there is some semblance of peace, smelt a huge rat. WHO SUFFERED because of this GRAND LOOT? We, the Public; and we will continue to ply on that excuse-of-a-highway because there is no other option.
For how long are we planning to continue to suffer (a really stupid question indeed)? The ULB election had generated so much disgust (partly for the wrong reasons) coupled with extreme violence (totally uncalled for). Was it because, as is famously known, the Government of Nagaland is a Paper Tiger? Now we are strangely silent, as if it is the problem of the KYO and ASU... and ACAUT, and we have nothing to do here. Maybe the barrel of the AK47 sends shivers down our spines? We are truly a generation of cowards, except for a brave few who stood up against the atrocities of some armed faction not so long ago. Our brave, honest ancestors would have hung their heads in shame if they were here today.
The AH 1 (Kohima-Chumukedima section) also faces the same fate as the other, almost forgotten highway (except for those regularly plying over it). Civil Societies of Nagaland... don’t shy away from your responsibilities. Please come out in the open and support the KYO, ASU and ACAUT. It is not their fight alone. Their fight is OUR fight. The general public is looking up to you for leadership.
GOD SAVE OUR HIGHWAY! (Sorry Akukau Kahuto CS, had to borrow)
Prof. G.T. Thong
Nagaland University
