GUWAHATI: Nagaland recorded the highest rate of crime under ‘extortion and blackmailing’ in 2021 at 7.6 per cent against the national average of 0.8 per cent but the state’s apex tribal organisation Naga Hoho said what the government of India says extortion is actually “loyalty tax” in the northeastern state.
HK Zhimomi, who is the Naga Hoho president, The New Indian Express the myriad rebel groups in the state expect people to make contributions to the Naga cause.
“We have the unresolved political problem for Naga nationality. Unfortunately, we have many political (extremist) groups and they want loyalty tax for the Naga national movement,” he said.
“Legally, the government of India may call it extortion but we cannot call it so,” Zhimomi said.
He admitted that there might be some cases of extortion, not related to the rebel groups.
A senior state government official, who did not wish to be named, said when a government remains silent on extortion by the insurgents, the case for police and law enforcement intervention becomes morally and legally weak.
Nagaland has at least nine rebel groups and each runs a parallel government. They survive on extortion, locally called taxation. The groups collect the taxes from all and sundry and the taxes are multiple.
The fear of guns made the people in the state remain silent until they started speaking up against taxation after the formation of an organisation called “Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation” a decade ago. It had launched a “people’s movement” and insisted on “one government, one tax.”
In May this year, Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton had said senior insurgent leaders do not want a settlement of the “Naga political problem” so that they can continue to enjoy the comforts of life at people’s cost. He had made an appeal to the Nagas to speak up against it.
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The Centre’s separate peace talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) and seven other rebel groups, which came together under the banner of Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), have already concluded.
However, there is no immediate solution in sight as the NSCN-IM has stuck to its guns on the “non-negotiable” demand of the Naga flag and constitution. But the NNPGs are flexible. They say the contentious issues could be pursued post-settlement.
Meanwhile, in stark contrast to extortion, the number of cognisable crimes in the state was the lowest among the states – 67.2 persons per 1 lakh population, according to the latest report by National Crime Records Bureau.
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Number of extortion and blackmailing cases in Nagaland (NCRB began publishing separate figures on such cases from 2014)
2014 – 129
2015 – 156
2016 – 151
2017 – 143
2018 – 192
2019 – 201
2020 – 131
2021 – 159