BHARAT Bhushan, as according to Naga sources close to the negotiations, had this to say in his article, “Emerging contours of the Naga settlement”: (Quote): “ On the issue of integration, the government is believed to have told the Nagas that it cannot put a deadline as state boundaries can only be changed through democratic processes. That means taking into account the views of the inhabitants of the states which stand to lose territory to the Nagas – Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The NSCN (IM) has been told that they should appreciate that the government cannot create a situation which leads to further chaos in the North-Eastern states. Although there are tentative suggestions for setting up a mechanism like the State Re-organization Commission, the integration of Naga areas, while on the negotiating table, is unlikely to happen any time soon.”
He went on to say that, “Until there is integration of Naga areas, there cannot be two governments for the Nagas – the elected government of Nagaland and the Pan Naga Hoho. Therefore, sources suggest, that in the interim period – for which no limit has been set – there will be only one government of Nagaland state. The residual powers of the Pan Naga Hoho, including its finances, in the interim period would then have to be defined.”(Unquote).
Here, without uttering anything as such, says it all. The Government of India does not want chaos in the North Eastern states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal, and is willing to meet that end at the expense of Nagaland spiraling into chaos. If what Bharat Bhushan has written is valid, it is clear that the seriousness of the Government of India to solve the Naga issue is limited to only empowering the NSCN(IM), giving it a free reign to impose itself on the people through sheer brute force. What will stop the Pan Naga Hoho (read NSCN(IM) ) from sabotaging the elections in Nagaland to install a puppet state government and appropriate all its powers by default? Without real time integration what will have the Nagas achieved? The very idea of democracy in Nagaland will remain defeated. More factions and groups will naturally emerge. Is the Central government really blind to such an aftermath, or is it by design in its vain belief of solving the Naga issue, by, like the proverbial story of setting a thief to go after a thief? If it is the later, the Government of India cannot be more wrong.
The formation of Regional Autonomous District Councils (RADCs) in the Naga-inhabited districts of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal should have nothing to do with the internal affairs of the state of Nagaland but a concern of the respective states and the centre, until then and as and when, Naga integration in all its true meaning is on the table of deliberation. This, I believe, has been the stand of the people of Nagaland and could be the way forward in making a beginning towards ushering peace and tranquility in the region.
