The Zeliangrong Baudi (Assam, Manipur and Nagaland) headquartered at Jalukie in Peren district on Saturday has expressed concern over recognition of Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei, collectively known as Zeliangrong, by the NSCN (IM) and called the decision of the outfit “arbitrary”.
The tatar hoho (parliament) of NSCN (IM) at a meeting at its headquarters at Camp Hebron on March 23 recognised Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei as separate tribal communities.
Zeliangrong Baudi (Assam, Manipur and Nagaland), in a statement, on Saturday said the NSCN (IM) recognition of Zelinagrong as three separate tribes was in pursuant of the directive of the outfit’s vice president on March 17.
The organisation has called a consultative meeting of all the leaders of Zeliangrong civil organizations, social leaders, politicians, government officers, intellectuals, scholars and academicians, religious leaders, women leaders, members of village authorities/gaon burhas, senior leaders and elders and also youth and student leaders to discuss the “arbitrary decision” of the NSCN (IM) at its headquarters at Jalukie at 11 am on April 3.
However, the Rongmei Naga People’s Organisation (RNPO), the apex body of Rongmei people living in the three states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, has expressed its heartfelt gratitude to NSCN (I-M) for the decision.
It said clubbing of these tribes together as a single tribe with the nomenclature Zeliangrong for so long had created confusion and had also suppressed their right to assert their separate identities.
The RNPO, in a press release, earlier also termed as baseless the claims of certain Zeliangrong organisations that the tatar hoho’s decision was taken without people’s prior consultation and rubbished their appeal for revocation of the decision.
The organisation said the decision was taken up after a series of meetings and discussions at the joint council meeting of Zeme, Liangmai and Rongmei tribes at a hotel in Dimapur on September 22, 2015.