Tetso College webinar on "Participatory Democracy - Activism as Tool for Critical Engagement"
Source: IT News

Dimapur, August 05 2020: The challenging local, regional, national, and global context within which the Nagas are struggling to find its feet and to walk tall and dignified, is complex and seems insurmountable.

These are but "external challenges" which every nation and peoples have their own fair share of.

The Nagas, despite surviving a thousand years as a civilization in its own right, from colonial and post-colonial onslaught of militarisation, Christianisation and globalisation, have no control whatsoever over what essentially stems from outside of their location and immediate context - the global economy, complex political paradigm and economic imperatives.

These are but weaknesses and challenges that need to be minimised over the long term.

What is most disturbing and urgent, though, is about the "internal challenges" that the Nagas have control over, and yet, would do nothing about it.

For this, the Tetso College invited James Pochury, a program officer from an International NGO in New Delhi to speak on Participatory Democracy - Activism as Tool for Critical Engagement" in a Webinar on 4th August, 2020 .

The webinar was moderated by Dr Aniruddha Babar; a Political Scientist, Lawyer and an expert in International Law and attended by students from different parts of Nagaland, faculty members and respected members of the society.

James Pochury spoke about necessity of political activism and how it is relevant to a present day situation where Naga society has been trapped in a complex socio-political conundrum.

He emphasize on a need of peaceful political activism within the legal framework to claim and reclaim the legal and constitutional rights.

He also spoke on social transformation and social development in the present day Naga context.

He critically examined as to why it is necessary to positively transform the unjust and unequal power structures and systems that perpetuate the status quo - where the powerful (elected) become even more powerful and the powerless Naga masses (the electors) become perennially powerless.

"To actively promote social and economic justice, where a win-win equation is a non-negotiable principle - asserted, demanded and enjoyed by an alert and conscious Naga citizenry.

Fulfilled by a transparent and accountable governance system that is embedded in Naga ethos, expressed in Naga Democratic Socialism.

We cannot take on the powerful status-quoists with the same mindset that created the problem in the first place.

We must become powerful to take on the powerful.

Through counter-hegemony" He concluded.

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