Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
'The fear of foreign taxation started the first momentum for Naga independence. Instead we are slowly being strangled by our own hands. The time to say enough is enough is here.'
The time has dawned for the Nagas to share some elementary home truths. For much too long, the National Workers’ fraternity has complacently been living under a false illusion that they actually command the respect and sympathy of the masses. It is obvious that they fail to perceive the reality that the people helplessly show respect for the guns while silently cursing the hands that hold them. They mistake this as a respect being shown to them. Sad…really sad. The sooner they realize this home truth and take some serious corrective measures, the better it will be for the Nagas as a whole.
Let us begin with a retrospection of a monstrous time gone by when the generations before us literally walked through the fire of a living hell. It was the toughest epoch of extreme inhuman cruelty and tragedy suffered by every Naga family with tears in their hearts, the extremity of which no living being should have ever been made to endure, in the hands of the Indian Army. At best, the present generation can only imagine the horrors of their time without feeling the real pain they went through and log it as another story from the distant past. As for that wonderful generation, they lived through it all with their heads held high. They were convicted in their belief that we the Nagas deserved a better life than a foreign yoke.
Many a sad story have been told of helpless fathers who had suffered relentless torture for days on end without food or water until death relieved their pain and suffering… all because of a love for a son who happen to be in the underground movement. Many a valiant story have been told of sons who had bravely fought against overwhelming odds and willingly laid down their lives for that solitary belief that we the Nagas deserved a better destiny. Many a shamelessly cruel story have been told of mothers, daughters and pregnant women mercilessly being gang raped, tortures and murdered sacrilegiously within the Churches and in open countryside. Many a ruthless and sadistic story have been told about captured National Workers and soldiers hung upside down with chili powder being smeared on their sliced flesh, even castrated and finally bayoneted to death and thrown to the dogs. Nagas were not worthy of a decent burial even after death. Many a cold blooded story have been told of able bodied Naga men being mercilessly butchered for no valid reason other than to disable the Naga Army of new recruits. All it took was to throw an unsubstantiated suspicion for the kill. It was a liability to be an able bodied grown up in those horrid days. For the Indian Army, the only good Naga was a dead Naga, like the Cowboys said about the Red Indians during the time of the American Wild West. Many a heart breaking story have been told of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, uncles and aunties who had died of starvation because their hard earned food grain in the granaries had been torched to ashes. Burning down the villages and granaries was the perverted Indian strategy to cut off the essential food supply to the undergrounds. They ruthlessly carried out their “operation scorch earth” and razed village after villages to the ground with vengeance and without remorse. As a ten year old at that time of mid-fifties, I still clearly remember Shichimi, Lumthsami and Sutemi villages being torched to the ground as we watched in awe from a vantage point of our Naghutomi village miles up the hills. Many a story of satanic acts have been told of concentration camps called “grouping” spread throughout Nagaland where the whole population of 5/6 villages would be herded like cattle into guarded enclosures unfit even for animal habitation, without the basic amenities. Death caused by malnutrition, starvation, diseases and exposure was a common phenomenon within these camps. The only thing missing was the gas chamber like the Nazis had for the Jews during the WWII. Everything else was similar. Many a daunting story have been told of families hiding in the jungles scavenging for jungle roots and leaves like animals and dying of starvation and diseases in their desperate effort to escape the horror of the concentration camps. I still carry memories of those days when our own family had to also spend months in the makeshift jungle camps to escape from one such camp at Lokobomi village. It is an unending gory saga of a race so inhumanly treated and humiliated by another human being without a conscience. Ours is perhaps the last generation to have consciously witnessed the cruelty of the Indian Army at close quarters that left behind a deeply scarred memory. In the face of such adversity the best in the Nagas stood out. The exceptional courage, the honour, the commitment, the sacrifices, the determination and the indomitable spirit shown by the National Workers and the total populace during those dangerously horrifying days will perhaps sadly never be seen again. The then Naga Army unwaveringly faced the odds as one. They earned genuine respect and most of all affection. The masses willingly paid the ultimate price and staunchly stood behind them as one. That was the proud testimony of the generation before us, a touching tribute forever written in the sands of time. Did they suffer in vain?
Yet look at us now. The hard earned genuine respect of our first generation National Workers has been ignominiously tarnished beyond recognition by the present generation of riffraff National Workers without a vision only leaving contempt and curses in their wake. Every bit of human decency and rationality is callously being wiped away. The root cause lies in the mushrooming of so many Factions, all talking of “Sovereignty” without knowing the true meaning of the word. It is very important to ask ourselves these questions: What purpose does it serve to have so many factions addressing the same subject?! Almost all the factions are fence sitters only awaiting the pleasures of the GOI which may never be forthcoming. If they sincerely mean business, have they made ANY I repeat any noticeable effort to seriously engage the GOI for a settlement other than to keep extending the cease fire agreement year after year? Their basic purpose and reality lies elsewhere. The cease fire agreement purely serve the purpose of affording opportunities to the factions for raising illegal mafia tax and amassing personal wealth and the hell with sovereignty! This they prove with their action. They have successfully turned our world upside down by their greed, power and self seeking priorities under the garb of National Movement which shamefully languishes in the septic tank. We the citizens of Nagaland see this so very clearly, groan under the burden of unfair illegal multiple taxes every day of our lives and still keep very quiet for fear of guns. How long do we propose to allow this to go on? Does our fear so degenerate us not to see a ‘wrong’ being committed so blatantly right in front of our face? Does our fear so overwhelm us not to see that every penny that we earn through the sweat of our brows can better serve the cause of our posterity rather than be wasted on rudderless self-seeking pretenders? Is it worth compromising the future of our children for those who falsely hold up the banner of sovereignty with their guns pointed at us instead of the enemy? There comes a time in everyone’s life to make a hard choice between the right and the wrong. We have tolerated the ‘wrong’ long enough. This is our time to courageously and collectively stand up for the ‘right’. Illegal as it is from the GOI’s perspective, I believe Nagas would still be more than willing to pay ONE TAX for ONE MOVEMENT but for 8 (eight) factions?... It crosses the boundary of rationality. Kudos to ACAUT for at least pushing the subject of taxation into the public domain. The forum has to however realistically debate the issue. Inflation is a national phenomenon. Over and above the already spiraling cost of commodities this additional deliberately induced multiple- taxation that we are experiencing, emphatically reduces our prospect for advancement. Our problem will not ease out or end by paying one tax to eight groups. Just take a look at an average picture: A brick that costs around 5/6 rupees at Dimapur lands up costing 15-25 rupees per piece by the time it reaches the District/and more at the village level. A truck load of sand that would cost an average of Rs3000/- at Dimapur goes up to Rs.25-35 even Rs 40,000/- when it reaches the Districts, for the simple reason of taxation along the route by each zonal controlling faction. How does one survive such an onslaught? I have tried to explain in my earlier writing that the solution lies in the civil societies standing up and forcing the hands of the factions to unite by declaring ‘one tax for one movement’. No movement can durably sustain its momentum without finance. If we collectively stand our ground and mean what we say the factions will have very little option left but to join hands whether they like it or not. On their own they will never unite. As it is, they are happier being disunited because each is the boss of his faction and can dictate taxation at will without seeking anyone’s permission. This has to change. It is my belief that the factions are not totally devoid of gray matter for them to blindly kill someone for refusing to pay the tax to eight factions in keeping with the collective will of the citizens of Nagaland. Should such an unfortunate incident take place it will spark the wrath of the masses as never before, more potent than the plebiscite of 1951. We began as one. We must end it as one. This is what we must insist. This is the only road left for our earthly salvation.
What surprises me most is that the Nagas of all the other Districts seem to think that this is an isolated issue that only affects Dimapur and has by and large maintained a relative silence. Know in no uncertain terms that this is a core issue that touches everyone’s lives in every corner of the State. It is important for all the Frontal Organizations, Civil Societies, Churches, especially the Youth organizations to firmly believe that this is the right and honourable thing to do for the sake of posterity and stand up as one to oppose this oppressive regime of taxation by the factions. We have no other alternative to salvage our future but to do this.
Remember clearly that the fear of foreign taxation started the first momentum for Naga independence. Instead we are slowly being strangled by our own hands. The time to say enough is enough is here! Wake up people! Wake up.
