Nagaland: Watsü Mungdang & Ao Senden Condemn 'Patriotic Nagas' Posts, Vow Action

KOHIMA: The Watsü Mungdang, the head women's organization representing Ao Nagas, sternly have come down upon a recent message posted on Facebook through the page "The Patriotic Nagas," who termed Ao Naga women to be "promiscuous".

Watsü Mungdang outright denounced such comments saying those words are unfortunate and degrading to all the womenfolk of every race and every tribe".

A politically driven, by design, focused attack on Ao Women is also perceivably perceived whereby they describe their version of an Ao dignity insult at every end of this polemic writing. Furthermore, the organizational body doubted that the administrators were sincere people, making them betrayers on par with what they referred to as "Patriotic Nagas."

Watsü Mungdang referred to times when the violence was perpetrated on several Ao Naga women including rape, and murder by the Indian army amidst turbulent periods. They doubted if the people writing the post were aware of the trauma of Ao families or whether a true Naga patriot would degrade their mothers and sisters in that way. The organization labeled the anonymous posters as "double agents posing as patriots" and condemned them for reliance on vague observations of some unnamed British bureaucrat that, they said, was a feeble attempt to justify their attack on Ao women.

The Watsü Mungdang called upon the Naga community not to take such divisive forces seriously. They issued a warning stating that so-called "Patriotic Nagas" were just fraudsters masquerading as patriots. The organization promised all legal measures necessary to reveal the identities of those behind this post and mete out justice as demanded by Ao traditional law. They held that, no matter how hard the women had been made to live by Ao men, the dignity and self-respect in which they lived were completely un-forgivable as regards the accusations thrown against them.

In a related development, the Ao Senden representing the Ao Naga community and civil organizations affiliated with it released a strong statement condemning what they called an "attempted character assassination" of Dr. SC Jamir, a leading political figure among the Ao Nagas. The post on the "The Patriotic Nagas" Facebook page, which attacked Dr. Jamir, was described as not only insulting to him but to the entire Ao Naga community. This sent Ao Senden into a tizzy where the post's comments about Ao women's morality were severely condemned as unsubstantiated and offensive. They further went on to say that the person behind this post shall be identified, and justice shall be brought to a proper conclusion.

All Ao citizens were also appealed to be vigilance if a further issue arises from this situation as well. In addition, they have issued a notice to the administrators of "The Patriotic Nagas" Facebook page to trace out the individual who had put up the offending post within seven days. Till November 5, the Facebook page went inaccessible as a backlash erupted across the Ao Naga community. The administrators of the page later came to know that a police complaint was filed against them by the Dimapur Ao Youth Organization (DAYO).

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