Kohima, July 31 (MExN): The Naga Club (NC), on July 31, stated that it was “appalled” at the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) allegation that it was formed in 2017/18 and claimed continuity over the years.
Responding to an ‘eviction order,’ the NSF last week had stated: “How do NSF pay rent to an organization from May 1983 till whatever date to an organisation which was formed only in 2017/18?”
Calling the statement on the issue “preposterous,” the NC’s Information & Publicity Cell on Sunday said that the NSF’s allegation was “not only ignorant but also impertinent that defies all acceptable norms and behavior of the Naga people.”
Continuity
It narrated the formation of the Club on January 7, 1918 by some Government servants serving in the DC’s office, Kohima under the Chairmanship of Rheichalie Pienyü, peshkar, whose team served from1918 to 1942.
Among others, the period was interspersed with submission of the historic Memorandum to the ‘Simon Commission’, on January 10, 1929 which became the written “Magna Carta of the Naga National Politics,” the NC noted.
As per the trajectories provided by the present NC team in the rejoinder, later, Krusiehou Belho became the Chairman and Ziekro-o Theünuo Angami, the Secretary from 1942 to 1966. Thereafter, Khyomo Lotha, former MP was made Secretary and Caretaker from 1966 to 1969.
For a brief period from 1969 to 1981, the NC “remained hiatus” as the atmosphere was not congenial to hold various activities due to hostile military operations by the Indian security forces, it narrated.
On January 7, 1982 at Kohima Village Panchayat, the NC was revived with Azüto Rengma as the Chairman, Vilavor Liegise as the General Secretary and Kewezü Mero as Joint Secretary.
Mero held his post till the new team of the NC headed by Krurovi Peseyie as President and KN Mhonthung Lotha as General took charge on August 17, 2017, the NC stated, claiming continuity of the office. Both Kewezü and Khyomo are our Advisors till today, it added.
In this connection, it asserted that the claim of formation only in 2017/18 by the NSF as ‘absurd’ and urged the latter refrain from publishing such “baseless statements” in the future.
As far as NC’s building is concerned, it noted that it was shifted to the present location in 1946 on the land provided Kohima Village, after previous building situated below the Mission Compound was destroyed completely during the World War II.
A Kevichüsa in 1983, who categorically stated that he personally supervised the construction, had earlier asserted that “belongs to the Naga people as a whole”- for a Pan-Naga community without borders, the NC pointed out.
During the early period of Naga National Movement, the building served as a meeting place for the functionaries of NNC as well as the Naga people and even the speech of NNC President, AZ Phizo delivered the Naga Plebiscite speech on May 16, 1951 from the building, it said.
It further noted that the Indian army “forcibly occupied the building” after the departure of the British till the formation of Nagaland Statehood and thereafter, the Directorate of the Forest Department (DFD) occupied the building till the early part of 1983.
On learning that the DFD was vacating the building by the end of March 1983 and the State Government is contemplating to handing it over to the Education Department, a prominent concerned Naga citizen, alerted Peselie Suokhrie, Chairman, Naga Elders Conference and NC Chairman Azüto Rengma, it informed.
The duo immediately met NSF leaders and directed them to lock up the building, it said. The DC’s police came and found the youth and the building barred at the entrance by a “disproportionately large lock,” and left saying “it is locked,” the NC added.
Accordingly, the NSF paid house rent for April 1983 and the DFD paid a sum of Rs 1,66,603 by cheque on March 28, 1988, as rent for a period of over 19 years (1963 to 1983), it added, expressing gratitude.
After the DFD vacated that building, the NSF on April 4, 1983 wrote a letter to the NC for its rental and the Club on April 7 allotted some rooms under the condition: “With the good consent of mutual understanding under rental basis with effect from the date of issue of this order,” the NC claimed.
It is evident that while the inherent and intrinsic nature of relation between NSF and the Club is ‘familial father-son relationship,’ the relationship with regard to the building is akin to a ‘transactional Landlord-tenant relationship,’ it asserted.
To justify the ‘eviction order,’ the NC stated that it is imperative to revamp and rebuild the building as it has undergone the severest of depreciation and stands dilapidated. This necessitated the need for tenants to vacate the building, it added.
On ulterior motives and other issues
It meanwhile clarified that “some individual laying claim of the Naga Club building dates back to 1979” pertained to the period when the NC was in hiatus.
The Naga Football Association (NFA) on September 8, 1979 “had claimed to form a Naga Club to stake claim as the legitimate Naga Club,” it stated, but it was actually a football club with no relation to the socio-political Naga Club formed in 1918, it added.
After the revival of NC in 1982 in Kohima Village Panchayat under the auspices of the Naga Elders’ Conference, there was claim of ownership by the “so-called Naga Club formed by the NFA” and a case filed in the Court of DC, the NC noted.
Subsequently, the two contending parties met on August 20, 1983 at the initiative of Angami Public Organisation (APO) and resolved the dispute, it added.
Thus, the old NC revived under the patronage of the Naga Elders’ Conference was bestowed the legitimate rights, it added.
However, the NC reiterated that for the “record and for posterity,” neither the Club, nor its building belongs to individuals but belongs to the Naga people as a whole.
Meanwhile, on the controversy over 100 years of the Club, the July 31 NC’s statement claimed that in the early part of 2018, it conveyed to the NSF of its plan to raise a monolith to commemorate the event and even requested the NSF to come forward as co-owner.
The NSF’s response was very positive, however, it took a ‘U-turn’ after its Federal Assembly in September 2018, and “refused to meet” claiming that the meeting “would legitimise the Naga Club,” it maintained. This is a stand which the NSF have adamantly thereafter, and refused to even respond to the Club’s various letters of requests for meetings till the end of June 2022, it alleged.
It further dismissed the suggestion that the present NC team was formed with some “ulterior motives” as a “figment of the immature imagination.” The NC further has “no intention whatsoever, to hamper the celebration of 75 years of existence of NSF,” it added.
It said that the NC endeavors to restore the building to its “rightful owner” - the institution of the Naga Club, and ensure that it continues to provide a platform to all organisations that work for the interest and welfare of every Naga.
The NC said that it is envisioned to house a large museum to preserve and display the Naga traditional artifacts alongside a library. It would house an office as a Morung, a conference hall and make provisions to house various representations of all Nagas encompassing an inclusive Pan-Naga community to foster unity, it added.
