Dichotomy of indigenous

Ex-Parliamentarians Association of Nagaland(EPAN) has joined various tribe organisations, CSOs etc to urge upon the state government to implement the recommendation of Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland(RIIN) submitted to the government towards the end of 2019. RIIN was needed so as to implement the notification issued by the state government on December 11,2019 to implement Inner Line Permit(ILP) in Dimapur district and also districts later carved out of it such as-Chümoukedima and Niuland. Notification for extending ILP to Dimapur had been issued under section 2 of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 by the governor of Nagaland. If ILP is to be implemented it would make it mandatory for “every non-indigenous person” to obtain ILP. It was for this basis that a three-member RIIN Commission was set up to frame guidelines for eventual enactment. RIIN commission recommended that the state government consider enactment of a legislation so as to bring the entire exercise and execution of RIIN and issuance of indigenous inhabitant certificate (IIC) and permanent resident certificate (PRC) to genuine persons, through a statutory law. Nagaland Tribes Council(NTC) had reiterated that the proposed register be generated on the basis of notification (No. AR-8/8/76) dated Kohima, April 28, 1977 with December 1, 1963 when Nagaland was formed, as a clear cut-off date for the entire state. RIIN also recommended that December 1,1963 be the cut off year to determine the status of an indigenous inhabitant of Nagaland. The commission further recommended that land laws need to be tightened as the practice of transfer of land and mutation of patta in favour of non-tribals on the basis of indigenous inhabitants certificates were detected and speak of either ignorance or land laws of the state. The commission specifically noted an instance of a chairman of a village council belonging to a tribe not indigenous to Nagaland. Therefore, it recommended that the prescribed qualification to be a member of a village council under the Nagaland Village and Tribal Councils Act 1978 be suitably amended by incorporating “indigenous inhabitant” as an additional condition. The recommendations of RIIN commission was submitted to the government by the end of December 2019 but since there has been no response. This is a strange development where a government literally is silent on the recommendations of its own panel instead of tabling it for discussion in the assembly where the contents could be debated and made known on public domain. Adding to the problem, the government instead proposed another cut of date as November 21,1979. This notification was issued to declare erstwhile Dimapur sub-division as a tribal belt. It was literally declaring a tribal belt within a tribal belt state. The state government’s stand has only added legitimate concerns as it meant having two cut off dates in one state to determine who is an indigenous inhabitant. One who does not qualify to be an indigenous inhabitant as per the December 1,1963 cut off date becomes one as per the November 21,1979 cut off date. This can only happen in Nagaland where rules are either not followed or rules that are not framed on the basis of legal and constitutional interpretations.