Thatched House

Morung Express Editorial Reservation is a controversial topic where common ground is hard to find. Opinion is largely shaped by personal experience, whether one is a benefactor or a victim of Reservation. The voice of anti-reservation is getting louder and louder that the word Reservation now carries a negative connotation. Reservation is seen as reverse-discrimination, something which kills talent and devalues accomplishment because people are chosen not on the basis of merit but on the basis of the social or racial group to which they belong. But if that were the case, why and how did Reservation came into being? Reservation has a negative connotation because of the way it has been used. So, it is helpful to understand the concept of ‘affirmative action’, synonymously used for Reservation in some other countries, to know the purpose of it. Affirmative action is the policy of favouring members of the disadvantaged who suffer from discrimination. It is an act of justice wh...

Morung Express Editorial It is noteworthy that Rani Gaidinliu was never venerated as now in Nagaland. She has been popular among her followers belonging to a section of one community. But except for a small pocket in Peren district, Heraka is concentrated more in Manipur and Assam. So, what has changed so that the temple and the memorial hall should come up in Nagaland, the later to be in the Capital city of Kohima? Besides, Gaindinliu is not simply a neutral figure, but a controversial figure in Nagaland. Heraka is not a major religion in Nagaland either. So, why should the centre of the centenary celebration be away from the centre of action and be held in a rather indifferent or even hostile place? The only things working in favor of constructing the temple and memorial hall in Nagaland are two persons: Governor PB Acharya and Chief Minister TR Zeliang. Gaidinliu was a Naga no doubt and the community she belonged to. It is not an issue of antagonizing a particular Naga ...

Morung Express Editorial Nagaland government raised taxation on tobacco products from 18% to 25%. This is a right move in the right direction. But comparing to the Philippines which raised tobacco taxes by as much as 340% and experience of other Indian States, what the State government did was far from enough. The World Health Organization released a document very recently called ‘The economic and health benefits of Tobacco Taxation’ which has strong evidences for the benefit of increasing taxation on tobacco products. There is evidence that increasing the price of tobacco products is one of the most effective measures to reduce tobacco consumption. It is estimated that doubling the price of cigarettes reduce consumption by 40%. In South Africa, average daily consumption of cigarettes came down from 4 cigarettes per adult per day to 2 cigarettes per day over a decade since the taxation increased from 32% to 52% from 1993 to 2009. In France, as the taxes increased, smoking...