Sümi-Chakhesang conclave to keep alive the spirit of brotherhood

Minister for Planning & Coordination and Land Revenue, Neiba Kronu speaking at the 8th Sumi-Chakhesang Brotherhood Meet in Shoxuvi village, Dimapur on November 12.

Morung Express News

Dimapur | November 12

Lok Sabha Member Tokheho Yepthomi wondered aloud why despite endorsing the ‘Nagaland for Christ’ slogan, one has to make a fence even before building a thatch structure in Nagaland and someone like him needs security guards while speaking at the 8th Sümi-Chakhesang Brotherhood Meet in Shoxuvi village, Dimapur on November 12. Yepthomi also lamented the absence of the Angami tribe in the Brotherhood while heritage speaks of Angami, Sümi, and Chakhesang as brothers.

The conclave was hosted by Western Sümi Hoho and attended by around 10,000 people.

Maintaining that the Nagas will have to live together and more so with the anticipated political settlement, he said that everyone will have to make sacrifices in the interest of the future generation. 

While calling for corrective measures, he emphasized how corruption has taken root in the Naga society and has had a debilitating effect in governance. A defensive Yepthomi said that elected representatives have to consider electoral prospects and think things over many times before taking up any venture.

As a Nagaland Minister for School Education and Parliamentary Affairs in 2017, he said that he came across 702 teachers and 72 Headmasters and Assistant Head Masters taking salary without working. According to him, he was advised against taking action, but he went ahead nevertheless in the interest of the students. He said that it resulted in 39 court cases against the department but the litigants eventually lost. 

He further claimed that in 2011, Rs. 13.5 crore out of a total of Rs 15 crore meant for the disabled were siphoned by five people and in another case, one HoD from a certain department allegedly making Rs. 87.93 crore in a span of six years.

Pointing fingers at the elected representatives is easy but he contended that corrective effort should also be made individually.

Minister for Planning & Coordination and Land Revenue, Neiba Kronu and Rajya Sabha Member KG Kenye were the other elected representatives, who attended the Brotherhood assembly. 

Neiba Kronu maintained that the message of “Brotherhood” of the two tribes has to reach the grassroots. If the Sumis and Chakhesangs can live together peacefully in Dimapur, they can do the same in their respective villages too, he said and urged the Sumi Hoho and Chakhesang Public Organisation (CPO) to jointly settle the existing border disputes between the two tribes.

KG Kenye felt that the Nagas have lost the time-honoured principles of integrity for which they were revered by historians that came in contact with them. Nagas take pride in their cultural heritage but they also must inculcate the virtues that defined the Nagas of old, he added. 

According to him, Sumis and Chakhesangs share affinities and are by nature known as straightforward and risk-takers. He said that the time has come to defend the culture and land by not letting go of what they already have, but to keep them safe.

Dr. Kakheto Zhimomi, who delivered the welcome address, said that the Sumis and Chakhesangs used to live together till the Sümis decided to migrate, the remnants of their settlements still existing in Chakhesang inhabited areas. He said that it was the will of God that brought the two tribes together in the year 1996 leading to the birth of the Brotherhood conclaves.

He said that the conclaves have been organised to keep alive the spirit of brotherhood and engendering greater contact, love and respect between individuals of all social strata of the two communities. 

“We claim we are brothers, but we end up fighting each other back in our villages. We want to change that and we will change that from this day onwards,” asserted Zhimomi.