Imploring Naga youths to dress “decently”, its president Khrielievi Chusi said they were not doing moral policing, but only trying to discourage certain things that were not acceptable to Naga society.
He said the organisation had been receiving frequent complaints from people about immoral activities in and around the capital city and termed the rising crime graph along with an increase in incidents of drugs and alcohol abuse, unprecedented.
Saying such curbs by the organisation would certainly trigger controversy, Chusi said these had become essential to save Naga society from degradation.
“The AYO will act against drunkards, drug addicts, immoral activities, indecent and improper dresses which are unpleasant to the public,” he said.
“But we are not trying to Talibanise Kohima,” the press and information secretary of the organisation, Aja Zinyu said.
He said moral policing on dress code is a “very sensitive” issue as there would be opposition from some quarters. “There would be opposition, but we want to work for the well-being of the people,” Chusi said.
The two youth leaders, however, requested parents to be vigilant about the dress code of their children.
“Their liberty of dressing should not affect other people,” Zinyu said.
He said they did not want to be too conservative but in today’s Naga society dresses of the youths have become unpleasant for some “eyes”.
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