Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, AUGUST 23
Widespread uneasiness has come to grip most Naga public, especially the younger lot, in the backdrop of Saturday’s “public rally against social evils” held here at the Clock Tower junction in Dimapur.
Organized by a recently floated group called “The Watchman”, along with other civil groups including the Naga Council Dimapur, the rally against “social evils” – despite its expressly good intention(s) – has also given rise to fears that Nagaland has had the first glimpse of her own breed of religious fundamentalism today.
The fact that this intriguingly named group “The Watchman” is mostly comprised church workers and their associated groups have hardly helped the cause to allay those fears. Recently, the group has also come out in support of the nocturnal raids conducted at hotels and lounges in Dimapur by some civil society leaders with the aid of members from Naga political groups.
At Saturday’s rally, the whole focus seemed to be channeled towards the controversial NLTP Act of 1989 rather than the prescribed script of “social evils.” Speakers at the rally, most of whom were preachers and clergymen, wrongly claimed that the State government was about to lift the dry law in Nagaland.
Perhaps they had forgotten that the Nagaland government has only stated its willingness to debate the NLTP Act. Nevertheless, they maintained that the dry law would not be lifted at any cost. The speakers included representatives of NCD, NWHD, NBCC, NCRC, WSBAK and DCF.
A resolution to his effect, which was one among the five-point memorandum drafted at the rally, read like, “It was resolved from the Open Public Rally against Social Evils on the 23rd August 2014 at Dimapur that the NLTP Act 1989 be enforced with immediate effect and with no compromise in order to save out young generation.”
Other features of the memorandum, which was submitted to Chief Minister TR Zeliang on the same day, include the demand to empower the state Excise department, to deploy police squads for round the clock patrol to check the “thriving and notorious business of prostitution in hotels and lounges” and to check the “alarming rate of illegal abortions being conducted daily.”
The Watchman had earlier claimed that about 2000 cases of abortions were being performed every day in “Christian state of Nagaland.” In Dimapur alone, the number stands at 100-200 cases every day, it claimed.
Another point in its memorandum read, “We reiterate that he government being a guardian of the law that as per the NLTP Act of 1989 “Drinking liquor in official functions and public places in an offence.” Hence it should be strictly adhered to as it demoralizes the officials, police and Excise personnel and shows a bad precedence to the younger generation.”
The attendance at the rally was quite low, prompting one pastor to say that it mattered not that a few people had turned up because “we see Jesus here among us.” Two-thirds of the crowd was students, mostly from schools and theological colleges.
