Our Correspondent
Kohima, Feb.12 (EMN): The Nagaland University Teachers’ Association (NUTA), Research Scholars Forum and Nagaland University Students’ Union representatives on Wednesday staged a sit-in at its four campuses -- Lumami, Meriema, Medziphema and Dimapur -- to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Registry of Citizens (NRC).
Addressing the gathering at Meriema campus, president of central executive council NUTA, Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu, asserted that the protest was against the NRC, CAA, attacks and atrocities meted out against university teachers and student fraternity in the country during the past months at various varsities like Jawarharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University (DU), AMU, Jamia Milia Islamia University, Viswa Bharati University and Tripura University.
“Police who are supposed to be protecting the citizens have now become the attackers and have started attacking the students on their private parts,” Dzuvichu said, adding that “this kind of attack is of grave concern for all of us”.
“NRC is a classic case that is not working; our next-door Assam had caused unrest to the people, detained in detention centres, could not trace their legal papers and by that, when a person cannot trace their legal paper, they are considered illegal immigrants to India (sic).
“Our concern is also for the Naga citizens on Register of Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland (RIIN) that the word “indigenous” has already become controversial to the people of Nagaland,” she said.
“If we are going to have a registry for the indigenous people, what are the modalities and norms that are going to be followed? The government had not been very clear on this. A commission has been set up,” she added.
She stated that “basically, there are no safety nets particularly for women” and that the state government has not conducted any serious dialogue on RIIN till date. She went on to say that neither intellectuals nor the university fraternity was invited by the government to have a discourse on the same.
“The protest today is a call to save the constitution, save education and save educational institutions simultaneously in all the four campuses of the Nagaland University in solidarity with what is going on in the rest of the country and condemning the violence and attacks happening in the country and especially in universities across the country,” she said.
“We cannot rewrite history and I think it is very wrong to neglect the Muslim population,” she said while asserting that it is undemocratic and not secular to make policies based on religion. She maintained that Nagaland was among the first to debate on the CAB and reiterated NUTA’s stand against citizenship based on religious lines that forgo secularism.
Responding to the speech of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio about common customary laws, she said, “This is dangerous”, likening it to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). She added that various tribes have their own customary laws and variations.
“Is there a possibility of drafting a common law for everyone?” she questioned while expressing fear of another ‘Naga to Naga war’ (sic) and maintained that it would destroy the social fabric and identity of the people.
Dzuvichu also opined that dubbing Nagaland as a techno-savvy state is wrong as “we have still not reached a state where our villagers are techno-savvy.” Asking whether the villagers have access to technology, she expressed the need to rethink and to be ‘concerned’.
She also highlighted the discrepancies in Nagaland University- in the appointment of professors and the unresolved affairs like the absence of the finance officer despite the lapse of one year.
NUTA (Meriema campus) president, Prof. B V Rao, Prof. D Kuolie, Prof. G T Thong and Chinge N A (vice-president) of Nagaland University Students’ Union also addressed the gathering during the protest.