NSCN wants to continue extortion

Naga peace talks is facing a major hurdle as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM) is insisting that the Central Ceasefire Monitoring Committee allow them to extort money, which they call “professional taxes,” from the officials of Nagaland.

Though there are no official figures of the amount extorted by the private militia every year, NSCN (IM) claims in its ‘official notification’ that it collects annual tax from individual officials at the rate of 2% a month. The outfit runs a parallel government in the state, which it calls “People’s Republic of Nagalim,” and entered into a peace deal with the Modi government last August.

The Naga insurgent group wrote a strongly worded letter on September 13 to central ceasefire monitoring committee chairman D K Pathak, a former BSF director general, taking objection to the government cautioning them against extorting money from officials and others.

 NSCN’s ceasefire monitoring cell convenor Kraibo Chawang claimed in his communiqué that the bilateral agreement did not bar their cadres from collecting “taxes”. The government for its part  calls it extortion.

“The agreed ground rules do not prohibit collection of tax by the NSCN. Therefore, it cannot be construed as violation of the ground rules,” said Chawang in the letter. The NSCN pointsman asked the Centre not to invoke “Indian judicial” system against the private militia, which he said was “against the spirit of the ground rules.”

The NSCN also expressed its concern over several cases  “unnecessarily” filed against its cadres and senior officials. The punitive action, the letter said, “undermined sincerity of the ongoing political talks” as the two entities recognise “unique history and situation of Nagas.” The outfit issued a couched threat to Pathak to cooperate  in the interest of the Naga peace talks. “Your esteemed office is humbly requested to reflect the progress of the talks while dealing with the ground situation in order to facilitate the talks to arrive at an honourable and acceptable solution,” the letter said.