Eradicating extortion is possible, Kohima village does not pay anything, says social activist

Nirendra Dev

KOHIMA, OCTOBER 26: Senior social activist and former president of Angami Public Organisation (APO) KN Sekhose has claimed that Kohima Village (Bara Basti) is not paying any ransom to any organisation because the Village Council decided not to encourage extortion some years back.

“It all depends on what people want. Our Village Council had decided in 2006 or 2007 and so there is no extortion demand or payment in our village”, Sekhose told Nagaland Page.

He said the situation in Nagaland vis-à-vis the ongoing peace talks is turning serious by the day and “not resolving it will never help any State Government or the stakeholders”.

“It is time Nagas become practical and help ensure peace and development. It is time to speak out clearly what is the offer from the Government of India”, he said.

Sekhose, 71, maintains: “In the given situation it will be wrong to say that we should work for final rounds of talks and a final Solution. What is important is that we have to understand these parleys as Peace talks. In that sense it may be interim in nature. The situation is such that one day we may have a Manipur type situation.

“Hence it will be important to have an end and Solution to these ongoing talks…Govt. of India should also take a call. But here I would add that the State Government and all others should be ready to welcome Solution and Peace and Development.”

To a question he said the 16 Point Agreement should also be taken positively and Nagas must realised that it brought Peace during the time and also Solution to herald Development.

In this context, he said, “Due to various factors Nagas got divided. I feel sad for Naga society. But it is true elderly Naga people did their part sincerely… but the younger generation could not carry that forward.”

“But I am not blaming anyone…,” he said.

He also said, “I also will add that there were much challenging times. But today we have a worse situation… old values, culture and even tribal ethnic languages are vanishing. It is regrettable

that there are Angami parents but the children in the family only speak Nagamese…Young students do not take up Tenyide language.”

Describing himself as a Congressman, he said, “I still call myself a Congressman and politically opposed to leaders such as Shurhozelie…But what is important is that we all must note there were high expectations when Neiphiu Rio became Chief Minister.”

Answering questions, he said, “Corruption is a reality because there is corruption during elections… Voters are also responsible. There are instances that for voters of 3000 constituencies; people spent Rs 30-40… so once elections are over, the leaders start doing everything to recollect their spent money.”