By Z. Lohe
Beside sovereignty, amalgamation of all contiguous Naga areas in North East India is the contentious issue of the Nagas that remains unresolved till today. The 13th serial of 16-Points Memorandum of 1960 runs “The other Naga tribes inhabiting the areas contiguous to the present Nagaland be allowed to join Nagaland if they so desire”. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly passed four successive resolutions on 12.12.1964, 28.8.1970, 16.9.1994 and 18.12.2003 respectively. Thus, within a span of 39 years the Nagaland Legislative Assembly reiterated the demand for integration four times. Yet, all those resolutions had to remain a monologue.
The predicaments are:
a) The Nagas in Arunachal Pradesh are disorganised. They do not have common public platform like UNC in Manipur. The Naga students in Arunachal do not have students’ body. The worst was that some years back, certain elected Naga leader led signature campaign and reportedly submitted a memorandum to Union Govt. that they were Arunachalees and not Nagas. Despite of the substantial presence of pro-Naga population, there was no leader to stir and counteract those anti-Naga elements. If Nagas in Arunachal are organised properly they could become formidable both in the Legislative Assembly and outside but the ground reality is otherwise.
b) Secondly, I have never come across any Naga being elected to the Assembly in Assam. I also doubt whether the Naga Diaspora in Assam has any organised platform.
c) The Nagas in Manipur are better organised and are more politically enlightened. But the setback is at the most Nagas can have 11 MLAs in the house of 60 and perhaps there had never been a collective elected formidable team in Manipur Assembly other than polarization. Beside, there had never been consensus amongst the Nagas in Manipur on the issue of Naga integration. The worst is the most prominent Naga political leaders who were Chief Ministers during their time swore that not even an inch of Manipur’s land will be conceded for Naga integration. Even the last Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Gaikhangam was always rigid with his stance against Naga integration.
Meanwhile, recently the Prime Minister of India Sri. Modi and the Union Home Minister Sri. Rajnath Singh assured the three States, namely, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh that their respective territorial integrity will not be disturbed by 3rd August 2015 Framework. Sri. Rajnath Singh went a step further to say that even the name Manipur is not there in the agreement of the Framework. Whereas, the NPF has been the pre-poll alliance partner of BJP and a member of NDA and it has to abide by the directive given by the mentor despite of sounding patriotic. What the Prime Minister Modi had said that Naga demand for integration cannot be considered at the cost of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal cannot be opposed by NPF and therefore it remained mute. The 4 NPF MLAs have to walk within the parameters set by BJP led ministry in Manipur.
Whereas, the 6 tribes under ENPO are having talks with GOI for a separate Statehood. In other words, ENPO wants to secede from Nagaland. The rest of the tribes in Nagaland can neither encourage nor discourage ENPO in regard to secession. ENPO always feels that it fails to get from Nagaland what it deserves during the last 54 years and it believes that better life awaits them when it becomes autonomous. Well, it is ENPO’s democratic right to assert for oneself. What the other tribes can do is just to wish ENPO all the best.
Contrary to what the Prime Minister of India had stated, the leader of NSCN(IM) Mr. Muivah claimed that ‘GOI admitted that without integration there is no solution’ as appeared in local media on 22.3.2017. To this claim, the Union Home Ministry has vehemently refuted branding Muivah’s claim as ‘erroneous’ as on 26.3.2017. Who is lying and who is bluffing the people are the questions. It caused much apprehension in Nagaland’s neighbour States. Beside people’s rancour raised against the statement, MPs sought its white paper on Framework from GOI in Parliament. To my observation, both the negative and positive statements cannot remain correct. The Prime Minister of India cannot afford to tell lie on the sensitive issue. Therefore, if what was stated by Prime Minister during his election campaign in Manipur probably on 25.2.2017 is true, that will disprove what Muivah claims. On the other hand, if at all what Muivah claims is the actual concession granted by GOI to amalgamate the Naga territories hereafter as he cannot afford to take Nagas for a ride for long, but as per the convenience of GOI to keep the agreement as a ploy for fear of severe repercussion from the affected States, it will prove GOI a liar ultimately. In any case, if one of the parties is honest the other is dishonest and will emerge as liar finally. Also, if there is no clandestine understanding between GOI and NSCN(IM) on the agenda in question, there may not be meeting point despite of more than 80 rounds of talk during the last 20 years.
The other people in North East India hardly talk about unity except the Nagas as if the word is discovered to be used by the Nagas exclusively. Yet, the Nagas stand to be the most divided people in the country. At the moment, 6 out of 9 NNPGs(5 NNC/FGN+4 NSCN/GPRN) have agreed to work together though yet to have a common political nomenclature. This is a positive development though much to the consternation of some section of people.
Few NNPGs believe that when they become united the Naga political issue will get diluted. The NNPGs prefer nursing the old wounds which they placed above principle common issues. The past errors committed by each one are enumerated in written and keep it in frame and hang it on the wall of their sitting rooms lest they forget and forgive. We cannot sit across a table and share our sadness and joy. Even mentioning the name of a group causes allergy to the other. The ego and ism therefore rule the roost.
Yet, we talk about living together under one administrative unit known as integration. At the moment talking about integration is placing the trailer before the car. The geographical amalgamation may come only when the Naga hearts are united, and in our case the reality is otherwise. Mere population integration is not a lasting solution to the problem, rather it will elongate the dimension of the issues. I therefore wonder what weight it carries to talk about integration in the midst of fragmentation.
