Rights of Indigenous Peoples on Recognition, Reparations and Reconciliation
“Whether heaven falls and the rivers run red with blood, I will not allow Nagas to be independent” said the First Prime Minister of India, Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru in the Indian Parliament, and went on to say; “I will station one Indian soldier for every tree in Nagaland and I will crush the Nagas within one week”.
After 15 years of trying to crush the Naga political movement without any success, India entered into the first Ceasefire Agreement with the Federal Government of Nagaland in 1964. However, this first Ceasefire was unilaterally abrogated by the Government of India in 1972 after 8 years of failed negotiations.
After more than 30 years of military occupation and its inability to crush the Naga political movement, another Prime Minister of India, Mr.Morarji Desai, went to London and met the President of the Naga National Council, Mr. A.Z. Phizoand said; “I will exterminate all the Nagas without any compunction”. Again he came to Kohima after that and told the same thing to a delegation of the Naga Students’ Federation at the Kohima; “I will exterminate all the Nagas without any compunction”.
After 20 years of this statement, some of India’s top Generals who led the military operations against the Nagas for decades admitted; “Military solution is not possible”.
This led to the signing of the second Ceasefire in 1997 between the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (IM), with Political talks that have continued for the last 22 years without “any logical conclusion” yet.
With or without Peace or Ceasefires, It is now more than 70 years that the Naga political movement has continued as one of the longest surviving political conflict in Asia, leave alone, India’s declaration to crush the Nagas within 7 days or to exterminate all Nagas without any compunction.
During the first period of ceasefire and political negotiation, the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, offered the Nagas; “to take anything under the sun – except “sovereignty”. Nagas responded that they will not take anything from India except to retain their sovereignty.
During the last 22 years of political negotiations, the Government of India appointed “interlocutors” to negotiate with the Nagas for a final political settlement with the Nagas. However;
- The first Interlocutor who was appointed in 1997, Mr.SwarajKaushal, a former Governor of India, who succeeded in the signing and implementation of the Mizoram Accord, was removed after he openly admitted that “Nagas have every right to be independent”.
- The Second Interlocutor, Mr.Padmanabiah, after more than 10 years of negotiation also admitted that; “Nagas are right” and he was again removed.
- The Third Interlocutor, Mr. R.S. Pandey, who served in Nagaland as a bureaucrat for more than 30 years, resigned in 2014, perhaps pre-empting an unceremonious removal, but imbedded the idea of a “shared sovereignty”.
- The Fourth interlocutor, who is also the present negotiator and currently the Deputy National Security Advisor, Mr. R.N. Ravi has managed to sign the 2015 Naga Peace Accord also known as the “3rd August 2015, Framework Agreement” but which have not been implemented so far with some “hiccups” much to the discredit of India’s insincerity.
Nevertheless, after the signing of the “Framework Agreement on August 3, 2015”, the then Prime Minister of India, Mr.NarendraModi, who is again the present Prime Minister, went on to say ; “I have the deepest admiration for the great Naga people for their extraordinary support to peace effort”.
What kind of a “Solution” the Government of India is having in its mind or up its sleeves, is best known by them alone. But what we do know as “Nagas”, is that our “history and situation has always been unique” to which the Government of India has also admitted and acknowledged on 11th July 2002, and re-iterated on the 3rd August 2015 – Framework Agreement. Therefore, the solution also has to be “unique”.
As for the other peace processes in north east, I really cannot pretend to know the details or even the contents of the processes nor speak of them with moral authority owing to varying sensitivity of the issues. So I can only say that there are efforts and initiatives made by the government of India with the different political and armed groups in the states of Assam, Tripura, Manipur, and Meghalaya. But in most cases, it has been unproductive so far, while in some cases, some groups have laid down their arms in return with some appeasement arrangements, while others are left “high and dry”. It has also created many rifts among the different groups with some in peace talks and others against it even within their own members of the same organisations.
But the fact is all of these groups and organisations are also watching at the pace of things with the happenings in the Naga peace talks. If the outcome is encouraging enough, they may come forward with more accommodative spirits. However, if the peace initiatives with the Nagas are discouraging it will only drive them further away. As of now, armed confrontations are kept under control, through different methods of peace agreements in the guise of “ceasefires”, “suspensions of operations”, “memorandum of understandings” etc. But at the end of the day, will any of this delay tactics, divide and rule policy or appeasement attitudes serve any real or meaningful purposes? The government of India only has the answers.
