The Naga Club has accused the Naga Students’ Federation of stalling the construction of a respectable Naga Club building for over 40 years and said that it can no longer wait. “The Naga Club will not allow the NSF to continue to hold the Institution of the Naga Club to ransom,” it stated in a rejoinder to the federation’s statement to Angami Public Organisation (APO) dated 5 August 2023.
NSF had in its epistle continued its refusal to acknowledge the Naga Club and referred to it as a “group of individuals” for whom the building is “a structure for personal convenience so as to satisfy their vested interest without having an iota of knowledge”. It stated that the building symbolised “the blood and tears shed by the Nagas in our struggle for freedom” and claimed that “a modernized palatial building” constructed in the land would be “haunted by the souls of those Nagas who have sacrificed for the Nagas struggle for Self Determination.”
NC in reply alleged that NSF is resolute to delegitimize its members because of its own vested interest to usurp the building for commercial interest. “.. the vision of the Naga Club is not for commercial gain, but to build a monumental building that befits the tall stature of the Institution of the Naga Club and its legacy,” it asserted.
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The Club maintained that it intends a new building to “house a large MUSEUM to preserve and display the Naga traditional artefacts such as antiques, ornaments, tools and equipment, alongside a LIBRARY where all the literature referring to the Naga people, its history, social, political, economic, literary, and important aspects of the Nagas are made available so as to exhibit and preserve the illustrious history, culture, heritage and legacy of the Nagas for posterity.”
“… it will also house an Office as a Morung, a Conference hall and also make provisions to house the people coming from the remote Naga inhabited areas as was done in the past and various representation of all the Nagas encompassing an inclusive Pan-Naga community to foster unity and to pave way for better understanding so as to usher in progress, development and peace,” NC added.
The federation, in its letter to APO, had also stated “if the Naga Club is to let live, it should be firmly grounded on the principle of the Memorandum submitted to the Simon Commission or else it will be only a mockery to the uniqueness of the Naga History for which the NSF shall not compromise.”
To this NC stated, “The Naga Club shall resist any such attempts by anyone misusing the office of the NSF to sabotage the endeavor of preserving the Naga History which had been fostered by the wisdom of the pioneers of the Naga Club, and whose vision for all the Nagas had been clearly immortalized in the principles stated in The Simon Commission.”
The Naga Club of today, as it was in the past, shall continue to uphold these principles, it stated.
