THE Dimapur Police Zone-I under the Deputy Commissioner of Police had an interactive session with the members of the Dimapur business community on 7th May 2016 as published in all the leading newspapers in Nagaland. According to the official report from the Deputy Commissioner of Police, during the meeting there were opinions that though supportive of the process of reconciliation, the initiatives of the FNR was the cause for legitimising the NPGs to impose tax. It is unfortunate that such opinions were then put on record in the official report thus again legitimising the very statement without taking into account the facts and the ground realities faced by the public before and after the FNR was formed.
Just four months before FNR came into being, Nagas witnessed the formation of another Naga Political group in November 2007 creating fear and apprehension among the people that expectedly resulted in the deaths of about 50 people during the months of May-June 2008.
After its formation in March 2008, FNR had conducted a series of meetings both in the country and abroad with the different factions in the presence of members from Naga Civil Society and the Church for peace and reconciliation among the warring groups and it was widely published in all the leading newspapers.
The FNR in their report published in 2011 has categorically mentioned about meeting such leaders like SS Khaplang of the NSCN(K) and the Adino Phizo of the NNC though the two groups could not be part of the historic Naga Concordant that was signed on August 26, 2011 among the NSCN (U), NSCN(IM) and the NNC/FGN (Shingya).
Though Nagas were witness to two other splits, one within the NSCN (U) and another within NSCN(K) and the internecine killings still continued, the timely formation and the existence of the FNR have brought tangible peace to the land. Though not all but six Naga leaders in 2011 through the initiative of the FNR apologised and forgave each other and in principle accepted to form a single Naga Government.
Amid much hue and cry from the public on the lingering issue of ‘unabated taxation’ from the NPGs the massive rally in Dimapur spearheaded by the then Action Committee against Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) of the Naga Council Dimapur, now ACAUT Nagaland, made a 3- point resolution on 31st Ootober 2013. Of which the first two were completely linked to the objectives of the FNR. To move for one single Naga Government and an appeal to the Government of India “to settle the Indo-Naga imbroglio at the earliest”.
Maybe the complete success of the initiatives taken by FNR is yet to seen at present but nonetheless it is successful in ending hostilities among the warring Naga groups and is in the right path to bring just peace. It is through such efforts that have given the public and the business community to talk about issues like ‘taxation’ which was earlier almost taboo. Instead of the fear and the cloud of uncertainty hovering among the Naga public the efforts of FNR and the likes have brought about the very platform to discuss the next level of issues that is affecting the Naga public. The truism is that the decades old Indo-Naga political issue is the problem and not the initiatives taken by the FNR. Just blaming the initiatives of FNR as a cause for legitimising illegal taxation at present is short-sighted, uncalled for and should be retracted with a clarification.