C M Y K
www.morungexpress.com
sunDAY • APRIL 03 • 2016
DIMAPUR • Vol. XI • Issue 90 • 12 PAGes • 5
T H e
ESTD. 2005
P o W e R
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better ‘Madmen’ must not be allowed to get nuclear material
Schools functioning without textbooks shock PSUN
PAGE 09
o F
T R u T H
— Andre Gide
Ferrari breaks Mercedes’ domination in Bahrain GP practice
PAGE 02
PAGE 12
Part i: Human rights in naga society - today and tomorrow Morung Express News Dimapur | April 2
For the Naga people, the question of human rights has been reduced from the language of ‘peoples’ and ‘political aspirations’ to the status of ‘scheduled tribes’ and ‘special provisions.’ This itself has led to a depraved condition of human rights in Naga society today, particularly after the formation of the Nagaland State. To address the issue of human rights in Naga society today, and its course in the future, Dr. Visakhonü Hibo, Principal of Japfü Christian College and Neingulo Krome, Secretary General of the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) spoke at the Morung Lecture at DABA’s Elim Conference Hall, Duncan Bosti, here today. The ‘Morung Lectures’ is an initiative of The Morung for Indigenous Affairs & JustPeace, and The Morung Express. Questioning if we are speaking freely and openly about human rights, Dr. Hibo stated that Naga patriotism was inspired by protection of land, culture and dominated our societies ever since. “The past holds a sober emotional attachment for every Naga
reflections
By Sandemo Ngullie
who has an inkling of Naga history,” she noted. “However of late, a kind of nationalism which every day people like me are failing to identify with is fearsomely looming large and thus confuses and often violates basic human rights.” In the self-sufficient Naga villages of yore, natural village citizenry led to “rights of each other regarded, duties and responsibility fulfilled without reminders or compulsion,” she said. Today, the “we feeling” of the yesteryears has been replaced by “mobocracy.” “Rule of law has surrendered to mobocracy. Strength is might and might is right.” For the educationist, “mobocracy” is led by not only about those wielding guns but also those leaders who are residing in “glass houses.” They need change before talking of human rights. “It will take a generation for us (to reach) where rationality clears issue of gender equity, child abuse, community relation, majority-minority conflict, forward-backward dilemmas, difficulties of unity and reconciliation without willing to change at the individual and collective levels,” Dr. Hibo reflected. According to her,
Neingulo Krome, Secretary General of the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) makes a point during the interaction session of the Morung Lecture at DABA’s Elim Conference Hall, Duncan Bosti on April 2. Dr. Visakhonü Hibo, Principal of Japfü Christian College was the other speaker at the Lecture. (Morung Photo)
to change, rule of law and the government should become supreme and human rights ensured to us. Neingulo Krome drew the picture before the 1997 ceasefire, the conditions that led to the ceasefire and how it changed the scenario of violence in Naga society. Explaining the work done by NPMHR
Dimapur | April 2
Trouble is brewing in the disputed border belt along the western fringes of Dimapur bordering Karbi-Anglong Autonomous district. On April 2, people from Nagaland reportedly numbering in the hundreds had a near face-off with Assam Police (AP) personnel in a patch of the disputed belt of the Daldali Reserve forest. Reports quoting eyewitness accounts stated that the AP personnel carried out a sortie today after detecting development activity during the past week in the disputed belt. While there was no report of clashes or casualty, unofficial reports stated that at least two temporary structures were dismantled before the AP personnel retreated. Despite the Dimapur district administration issuing prohibitory order to prevent entry of people from the Nagaland side, people continue to defy the order and enter the disputed belt. While the Karbi-Anglong administra-
tion could not be reached, the Deputy Commissioner, Dimapur stated that the administration is monitoring the development and is in touch with its Karbi-Anglong counterpart. According to the DC, border vigil is getting difficult as people are still able to enter in small groups. At present a platoon of NAP (IR) personnel is maintaining vigil on the Nagaland side of the disputed belt covering an area stretching from Rilan till Sangtam Tilla. As entry into the disputed belt continues unabated, the DC informed that the existing border vigil will be strengthened by an addition of two platoons by April 3 and followed by more deployments on April 4. In 2014, two lives were lost in a series of sporadic skirmishes when tension gripped the Daldali and Dhansiri Reserve Forests areas. The dispute which ensued for months had started in January 2014 gradually fizzling out midyear. As many as 40 persons reported to be encroachers were arrested by the Assam Police during that time.
District Admin requisition police reinforcement
No. 1 in underweight population, India among top 5 in obesity
C M Y K
NEW DElHI, AprIl 2 (AGENCIES): While India and China continue to have the largest number of underweight people in the world, both the countries have also broken into the top five in terms of obesity, a new study published in The Lancet journal has found. With 102 million men and 101 million women underweight, India leads the world in being home to over 40% of the global underweight population. China is a distant second with about 8% of underweight men and over 12% of underweight women. However, India has also seen a surge in obesity. It had 0.4 million obese men, or 1.3% of the global obese population in 1975, but in 2014, it zoomed into the fifth position with 9.8 million obese men, or 3.7% of the global population. Among women, India has jumped to the third rank with 20 million obese women (5.3% of global population). China has followed a similar trajectory to India when it comes to obesity, rising from 13th rank in 1975 for men and 10th among women to the first rank in 2014 for both men and women. It now has the most number of obese persons in the world edging out the US.
he stated, highlighting how the Naga movement could not carry on without money, guns and bullets at some point of time. “So when ceasefire came in 1997, we thought we must make the most of it. Without any invitation, without any ownership, we said this ceasefire must work,” the Secretary General of NPMHR said, noting how at the
Shared humanity as core of human rights
Editor of The Morung Express, Dr. Aküm Longchari, pointed out that it is the responsibility of the State to protect rights. However, while noting
that 1960 was a key event in Naga history, he questioned whether the 16 point agreement was part of a counter insurgency policy, devoid of the social contract between peoples that gives a State its legitimacy. The State, in this case Nagaland State, thus, has “implications on our rights” as it was not the result of the “democratic will of the people” with majority of the people left out of the process. Human rights are the “foundation of our future” and to get to them, “we have to traverse the trajectory of our evolution,” he said, asserting that “Nationalism that does not respect rights of the people is exhausted nationalism.” Nationalism gains legitimacy only through upholding shared humanity as the core of human rights. The human rights movement, then, has to go beyond the “voice of protest/resistance,” being complemented with “voices of equality and culture of dignity.” The language of human rights, he concluded, has to be rediscovered, and incorporated into everyday life, which will decide its onward course in Naga society.
Tension brewing in Dmr-KA border india is furious after china blocks Un blacklisting of Masood Azhar Morung Express News
It’s ok saabji. I m from the SBI....not CBI!
since 1978, he noted how slowly the work transformed from addressing the abuses by the Indian State of the Naga people to addressing those within the Naga family. “The situation was beyond any human rights organisation to control or even to talk about. Situation became even more dangerous even to talk about them,”
time in Nagaland, “we had no time to talk about health, education. We were just worried whether we can wake up the next day alive.” As the older generation has completed innovative campaigns such as people-to-people dialogues between the Indian and Naga civil bodies, Krome hoped that the “competent” younger generation will design ways to address human rights through a contextual lens. In a long public discussion on human rights that ensued, while Dr. Sedevi Angami wondered how we can inculcate human dignity, respect and inclusiveness without which “we lose credibility as a society,” child and women rights activist NK Keny asserted how Naga society has no option but to take necessary action on the rights of women and children, on disability, healthcare, the forensics of rape and sexual violence, domestic violence, child soldiers etc.
UNITED NATIONS, AprIl 2 (rEUTErS): China has put a hold on India’s request to add the head of the Pakistani militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad to the United Nations’ al Qaeda-Islamic State blacklist, U.N. diplomats said on Friday, eliciting an angry reaction from the Indian government. India accused Jaish-e-Mohammad of masterminding a fatal attack on the Pathankot air base in India in January. India had requested that its leader be added to a U.N. Security Council blacklist of groups linked to al Qaeda or Islamic State, the diplomats said, but China objected. The Kashmir-based group Jaish-eMohammad has already been blacklisted by the 15-nation Security Council, but not its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, an Islamist hardliner and longtime foe of India. “We find it incomprehensible that while the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad was listed ... as far back as 2001 for its well-known terror activities and links to al Qaeda, the designation of the group’s main leader, financier and motivator, has been put on a technical hold,” Indian government spokesman
Maulana Masood Azhar, head of Pakistan’s militant Jaish-e-Mohammad party, attends a pro-Taliban conference organised by the Afghan Defence Council in Islamabad August 26, 2001. (REUTERS/Files)
Vikas Swarup said in Washington. “This does not reflect well on the determination that the international community needs to display to decisively defeat the menace of terrorism,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in the U.S. capital. It was not immediately clear why
China requested that a hold be placed on the Indian request to blacklist Masood Azhar. Technical holds can be lifted and often arise when a Security Council member wants more information. But sometimes they lead to a permanent blocking of a proposed blacklisting. Asked about China’s decision to place a technical hold on the proposed blacklisting of Masood Azhar, Chinese U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi offered no details. “Any listing would have to meet the requirements” for blacklisting, he said. Pakistani security officials have said that a special investigation team set up in Pakistan to probe the Pathankot attack found no evidence implicating Masood Azhar. If Masood Azhar was blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council, he would face a global travel ban and asset freeze. The January 2 attack at Pathankot was followed by a raid on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan that has also been linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad, or the Army of Mohammad. Jaish-e-Mohammad militants are blamed for a 2001 attack on India’s parliament that nearly led to a war between the nuclear-armed rivals.
‘Urbanization’ reaches Meluri; upgraded to town council Chizokho Vero
fledged Town Council, it is now entitled to get the funds from central government for overall development of the town. He also informed a new scheme “Housing for all” for urban poor will also now cover Meluri town.
Meluri | April 2
The ‘urbanization’ wave reached Meluri town as it officially became a fullfledged Town Council - the fourth Adhoc Town Committee to be upgraded this year after Shamator, Noklak and Aboi subdivisions. Meluri, under Phek district is located 167 km away from state’s capital Kohima. Chief Minister T.R Zeliang, who formally inaugurated the Meluri Town Council on Saturday said out of the 17 towns that sought for upgrade to town councils, four were allotted on the grounds of backward and border area. While calling upon the people to gain maximum benefit out of the upgradation of such town councils, Zeliang emphasized on the need to enhance tax collection in the form of toll tax, trade license etc. by the town councils. He maintained that development will flourish
Zeliang appeal womenfolk to accept 25% nomination in ULB
Chief Minister T.R Zeliang, minister for school education Yitachu, parliamentary secretary for municipal affairs R. Tohanba and others during the inauguration of Meluri Town Council on April 2. (Morung Photo)
only when citizens come forward and is willing to pay tax fixed by the respective town councils, which is for the benefit and development of the town. The chief minister also cited an instance on how Delhi city developed to such great extent - largely because it generates more than Rs 10,000 crore out of tax, and the same is being used for city’s development.
He also called upon the landowners to extend their cooperation for overall development of the town. Referring to the memorandum submitted by Pochury Hoho through its president Penthu Pochury, the chief minister assured to consider the same. The contents of the memorandum include creation of Sub-Treasury office at Meluri, creation of Police
Outpost at Avakhung International Trade Centre and creation of Political Assistant to ADC post at Meluri. Minister for school education & SCERT Yitachu, who is the elected representative from 20th Meluri A/C called upon the people to develop broader vision and mentally prepare to face industrialization process with the attainment of the fullfledged town council.
Stressing on the need for proper functioning of town council, Yitachu called for improving sanitation; roads, drainage, systematic distribution of water supply and other basic amenities. Parliamentary secretary municipal affairs and economics & statistics R. Tohanba said with the upgradation of Meluri Town Adhoc Committee to a full-
Chief Minister T.R Zeliang today appealed to the womenfolk to accept 25% nominations to the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) with full voting rights on an experimental basis to begin with. “Instead of 33% reservation which is vehemently opposed by our tribal organisations, I appeal to the womenfolk to accept 25% nominated seats to the ULBs with full voting rights, and if it is found necessary and viable we can have more reservations for our women,” he said while addressing the inaugural function of the upgradation of Meluri Adhoc Town
Council to a full-fledged Town Council. The chief minister also appealed the men-folk to change their mindset in tune with the changing times and “together with our women, work together hand in hand for the uplift of our people.” He also pointed out that due to the reservation issue pending in the Supreme Court; the State Government had been unable to utilize annually Rs 40 crore sanctioned by the Government of India for the ULBs. “Upgradation to Town Council will not benefit the people of the towns much if the Court issue is not resolved at the earliest and we will continue to lose out on funds meant for the ULBs,” he said. In this, the chief minister appealed to the womenfolk to withdraw the case from the Supreme Court and work together with the menfolk so that the purpose of having ULBs is not defeated.