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reasons to wake up earlier than the other States to the folly and futility of prohibition. ... suing towards the Nagas since 1937. when it was decided to separate.
THE

September 22, 1962

ECONOMIC

WEEKLY

Weekly Notes Con Congress Question Prohibition ? M Y S O R E ' S Finance M i n i s t e r told the State Assembly, according to a news agency report, that: "11 the unanimous or even a m a j o r i t y o p i n i o n in the House was that p r o h i b i t i o n was ' o f no use', the Government would have to take note of i t . A stage m i g h t come, when the Government would have to consider whether to 'keep or scrap' p r o h i b i t i o n " , The M i n i s t e r further remarked that the Government was aware of the difficulties in the successful implementation of p r o h i b i t i o n and that the legislature would be given an o p p o r t u n i t y to discuss the matter before the Government considered any alteration in its p r o h i b i t i o n policy, The Press correspondent who reported this, added that the Finance Minister's statement was particularly significant because the Chief M i n ister and other members of the r u l i n g party were credited w i t h a similar view. It is not impossible that members of the Congress party in the other States a n d even the Congress M i n isters who are responsible for enf o r c i n g Prohibition in their Stales, harbour such thoughts. But it was left to Mysore's Finance M i n i s t e r to give p u b l i c expression to them. Perhaps one should w a i t before m a k i n g a final judgment, for what is reported in the papers can always be contradicted, and M i n i s t e r s in State Governments hold office only d u r i n g the pleasure of the H i g h Command. Never has a responsible Congressman p e r m i t t e d himself to express the slightest doubt about p r o h i b i t i o n , and it would be surprisi n g indeed if the Congress were to reverse a policy merely because it cannot be implemented. Not that Mysore has any special reasons to wake up earlier than the other States to the folly and f u t i l i t y of p r o h i b i t i o n . N o r is there any reason to suppose that this particular Stale has been p a y i n g more heavily for p r o h i b i t i o n than the others. For it could not have been a n y t h i n g more than a chance coincidence that the same paper, which carried this startling statement f r o m Shri B D Jatti, also carried the f o l l o w i n g small news i t e m : " A t least

eight deaths due to ' d r i n k poisoni n g ' in the last few days have been reported f r o m the K o l a r goM m i n i n g area. Unconfirmed reports place the death-roll as high as 62". The foll o w i n g day's paper reported that the U e p u l y Inspector General of Police in Bangalore told newsmen that reports that more than 60 had died, were definitely exaggerated. It was officially stated, however, that the number of deaths due to consumption of spurious d r i n k s in the K o l a r gold m i n i n g area d u r i n g the past four days had mounted to 18. If social cost in terms of administrative and political c o r r u p t i o n and in terms of human degradation were to count, Bombay should have been the first to cry a halt, for it has the widest and longest experience to profit from. But its very enlightened Finance Minister, w i t h a first-rate administrative record behind h i m , has chosen to keep m u m . It was left to a p o l i t i c i a n Minister of Mysore to speak out and court opprobrium. Meaningless Referendum HOW heretical and unorthodox the Mysore M i n i s t e r s views are, how d i s t u r b i n g to his opposite numbers in the other States and what a bad boy he must be in the eyes of his mentors come out sharply when one looks to the conduct of the model Congressman who runs the Government in Fast Punjab. Shri P S K a i ron. the Chief Minister, knows the correct, democratic practice and also knows what is the proper conduct for Congressmen. He has offered to put the issue of p r o h i b i t i o n to the free vote of the people, but the subject of referendum is not whether p r o h i b i t i o n is good or bad — even to ask such a question would be sacrilege — but whether complete p r o h i b i t i o n should be introduced w i t h i n the T h i r d Plan and how should the programmes be phased. People cannot be trusted to judge whether p r o h i b i t i o n is good or not. T h i s is for their betters to decide and they have decided. T r u t h to t e l l by and large, the vast m a j o r i t y of the people in any State arc quite indifferent about p r o h i b i t i o n . D r i n k i n g is confined to only a section of people the semiwesternised at one end, and the 1498

millhands, and some of the lower classes at the other. In between, the vast b u l k of the people have no particular o p i n i o n about p r o h i b i t i o n and no hard feelings, for or against. B u t if an exception has to be made - o n e has to go by hunches in such things perhaps it could be made in the case of Punjab, where d r i n k ing is perhaps much more widespread than in any other State. A referendum on p r o h i b i t i o n could thus be meaningful, had it been applied to Punjab, In most other States one can almost lake for granted what the outcome would be. Not only eyebrows w o u l d be raised in top Congress circles at Jatti's apostacy. constitutional pundits w i l l reel off chapter and verse lo prove that it is a directive of the Constit u t i o n , to be carried out as and when possible, but it is not permissible to t u r n back having once started on it. That the Constitution has many other directives also and that all of them cannot be carried out at the same time or that the directives are not even m u t u a l l y consistent even to raise such a question is to invite the derision of those who guide the destiny of the country today. The Sixteenth State T H E approval b y Parliament o f the B i l l s creating N a g a l a n d as the sixteenth State of the I n d i a n U n i o n and f o r amending the Constitution for the purpose m a r k s the culmination of the policy w h i c h the Government of I n d i a has been pursuing towards the Nagas since 1937. when it was decided to separate the N a g a H i l l s district f r o m A s r a m . Nagaland, w h i c h w i l l be the smallest State i n the country and w i l l have an area of 6,000 sq miles a n d a population of five to six lakhs, will comprise three districts : K o h i m a , M o k o k c h u n g and Tuensang. I t w i l l be represented by one member each in the L o k Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and w i l l have a Legislative Assembly w i t h 46 elected members. The Legislative Assembly w i l l replace the I n t e r i m B o d y created in 1960. The State, like any other State, w i l l be administered by a Governor, who w i l l also be Governor of Assam, advised by a Council of Ministers.

THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY Certain special features have been w r i t t e n into the B i l l s creating N a g a l a n d . These have been j u s t i fied in v i e w of the unusual conditions p r e v a i l i n g i n N a g a l a n d a n d the special position of the Tuensang district w i t h i n the State because of its relative backwardness compared to the other two districts. F o r the time being, the Governor of the State w i l l have special powers i n reg a r d to l a w a n d order a n d finance but these powers w i l l be relinquished as soon as the President of I n d ' a decides that the situation in the State has become n o r m a l . The other spec i a l provision relates to the district of Tuensang. Tuensang w i l l have a separate regional council. No act of the N a g a l a n d Assembly w i l l apply to the Tuensang district unless the Governor, on the recommendation of the regional council, permits it. E v e n as the U n i o n Parliament was approving the N a g a l a n d Bills, echoes of the old and disastrous policy of integrating the Nagas, f o r c i b l y if need be, w h i c h was followed immediately after l n d e pendence and to w h i c h the P r i m e Minister made regretful references in his speech in the L o k Sabha, were heard in f a r off Shillong, in Assam. There in the State Assemb l y the Chief Minister, Shri B P Chaliha, moved a resolution dec l a r i n g that the provisions of the Nagaland B i l l s were not "conducive" to the objective of co-ordinated development and political suability in the eastern region. The resolution said : " T h i s Assembly is of the opinion that in the interest of national solidarity and also w i t h a view to b r i n g i n g about a coordinated development a n d greater political stability of the Eastern region of I n d i a there should be an integrated political a n d a d m i nistrative set-up of various units w i t h i n this area and that nothing should be done w h i c h m a y have an effect of w e a k e n i n g this unity. " T h i s Assembly further considers that in such an integrated set-up special arrangements could be made to meet the needs of different regions of the area, " T h i s Assembly is of the view that the provisions of the State of N a g a l a n d B i l l , 1962 are not conducive to the aforesaid ob~ jectives." Not a Return to Isolation THE resolution has been quoted at length to show that the altitude o f m i n d w h i c h created the N a g a

September

problem after Independence has not at a l l died d o w n . Before Independence B r i t i s h policy towards the Nagas was based on two principles: non-interference w i t h the Nagas' t r a d i t i o n a l w a y s a n d t r i b a l affairs a n d isolation of the N a g a s f r o m the I n d i a n s l i v i n g i n the plains. The Assamis and the Bengalis were not permitted to m i x w i t h the Nagus, not even to trade. T h i s policy succeeded in its l i m i t e d objective w h i c h was to keep the Nagas quiet and out of trouble. In the immediate post-Independence period, fired no doubt by the laudable motive of national integration, but also by other motives w h i c h were not so laudable, the A s s a m Government followed an active policy of t r y i n g to assimilate the Nagas into Assam. The results were disastrous. The Nagas rebelled to a m a n a n d by 1956-57 it could be said that there were few Nagas who were not hostile to the I n d i a n Government. It took the Government a decade almost to realise the f o l l y of this policy. O n l y late in 1957 was the N a g a H i l l s district separated f r o m A s s a m and a l l N a g a areas consolidated into one t e r r i t o r y directly under the Central M i n i s t r y of E x t e r n a l A f f a i r s . I f the Government can today c l a i m that the number of hostile Nagas has been reduced f r o m 15,000 to less than 2,000, the credit must go, whatever the success of the protracted m i l i t a r y operations in the area by the I n d i a n a r m y , to this reversal of policy. The agreement w i t h the leaders of the N a g a N a t i o n a l Convention followed in two years under w h i c h the Government conceded the demand for a separate N a g a State. The I n t e r i m Body and the Council were formed and the Nagas have enjoyed progressively greater autonomy d u r i n g the last two years. This is not a return to the B r i t i s h policy of non-interference and isolation. Let it be admitted that the l o n g isolation of the Nagas has been responsible for the barriers that exist today between them a n d their neighbours in the plains a n d it must be the ultimate objective of the Government's N a g a policy to g r a d u a l l y break down these barriers. However, experience has taught us that the pace cannot be forced. Indeed, it has been proved that assimilation, even gradual, is not the answer we are l o o k i n g f o r 1499

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at a l l . Instead, association m a y be that answer. T h e f o r m a t i o n of Nagaland as a separate State, equal in status to the other States of the U n i o n , is a necessary prelim i n a r y to the association of the Nagas w i t h the rest of the people of India, Protection, Not for Peasants T H A T there should b e differences, even w i t h i n the Congress party, over such an important piece of legislation as the U P L a n d H o l d ings T a x B i l l is not very surprising. A f t e r a l l , it would be too m u c h to expect a l l legislators, even though they do belong to the p a r t y w h i c h has moved the B i l l , to agree w i t h the details of the B i l l . There could be differences, and legitimate ones, over such matters as the rate of increase in tax proposed, the exemption limit, etc. W h a t is, however, appalling is that the v e r y principle of t a x i n g the r u r a l sector is being questioned. A n d not o n l y by members of the opposition parties, w h o might after a l l be expected to fish in troubled waters, but by Congressmen who swear by the Plans. In a l l conscience, w h a t S h r i C B Gupta, the U P Chief Minister, said after the three-day meeting of the State Congress Legislature party, called to discuss the L a n d T a x BUI, was unexceptionable. A l l he said was that the meeting had approved of the principle of r a i s i n g the l a n d tax. It would be surprising, to say the least, if there were not even this bare m i n i m u m of agreement w i t h i n the party. But there wasn't. As m a n y as 50 Congress members of the Legislature made haste to point out in a letter to the Chief Minister that there h a d n o t been in fact agreement even on the principle of the- levy ! The L a n d Holdings T a x B i l l proposes to levy an a n n u a l tax of 2 ½ per cent on the capital value of a g r i c u l t u r a l holdings in U P. To take account of differences in qual i t y of land, the B i l l lays down the procedure for v a l u i n g the holdings for the purpose of l e v y i n g the tax. The value of a h o l d i n g is to be calculated as a multiple of the l a n d revenue payable on it, the multiplier depending on the quality of the l a n d and v a r y i n g between 12 and 50, The effec of the new tax w o u l d be to raise the revenue payable on h o l d ings by 30 per cent at the lowest