If any Naga sees the Naga political problem is in the cross road, he must have seen from a broken glass. Any flowing river must begin from a clear stream of water. So also the Naga political struggle started 80 years ago with clear vision. But there are many human made structures blocking Naga sovereignty.
There has been many cases of imposing, cheating, bribing the last six decade. The story of the Naga National Council Movement for recognisation of their inalienable right for sovereignty and Independent, therefore began from 1929 in written form through the roots of their Naga inhabited home land . To make this fact very clear, from the memorandum that was submitted by the Naga club to the Simon Commission in 1929:
“If the British Government however wants to throw us away, we pray that we should not to be thrust to the mercy of the People who could never subjugate us, but to leave us alone to determine for ourselves as in ancient times. To confirm this fact the British ruler Major General; Sir James Johnstone in 1886 said “while it has never been suggested that in ancient time or before the British rule the Naga hills were ever an integrate part of Indian. It has been suggested that there were period in the revolt. Where Naga Chief owed allegiance or period paid tribute to Ahom king of Assam before British conquest. Assam itself being not then part of India”.
The NNC was formed with the aim of uniting all the Naga tribes under one political umbrella. It was first formed with 29 members representing the various tribes on proportional representation of one member for every 10,000 people. As to its membership, every Naga born of Naga blood was by virtue of birthright a member of the NNC, from its very formative years it was a Naga people’s political institution supported and financed by the villages. Contributions for its maintenance came in the form of even pumpkins, paddy, cows and mithuns, besides the membership fee of Rs 2/-. The NNC was closely knitted together through the Central Council. Tribal Councils, Regional Council and Village Councils. From its very inception the policy of the NNC was to establish a sovereign independent Naga country and to develop it according to the genius of Naga democratic customs and culture.
However, as is true of any organization there were elements even in the NNC who were more moderate and short-sighted in their political vision for the future of the Nagas. In fact, a careful analysis will reveal that there were three categories of people within the NNC at this stage:
1. Those that were for total sovereignty from beginning and never compromised their stand to date.
2. Those that wavered at the beginning but were eventually won over to the majority body and became faithful to date.
3. Those that wavered from the beginning and eventually went on to full cooperation with Indian Government.
Of these three categories of members in the NNC, the first formed 99.99% of the Naga population which was clearly shown through the plebiscite of 1951.
Another group of a few individuals belonged to the first group at the initial stage but when war broke out and they realized that they had a price to pay off, they made a compete turnabout and joined the last. There can be no argument of their land and people with their custom and tradition and culture, Nagas have had enough of suffering and pain. It is going to be 55 years now since the puppet State Government has been installed. Different parties have been set up with their manifesto to support Naga Political solution, but no party has fulfilled their promise. Only purchasing vote and cheating and bribing the people has become a way of life. There will be beautiful manifestos in paper but the situation will be the same. All support free and fair Election but when time comes it will be from bad to worst.
After a long struggle, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council(NBCC) intervened and battled for a fair and free election 1982. Accordingly, the NBCC leaders had two rounds of talk with the public and political leaders all over Nagaland. The first meeting was held at Kohima on October 30, 1981, which was well attended by all prominent leaders of all political parties of Nagaland. This consultation was very successful in that good decisions were unanimously agreed upon and duly signed by all the 85 leaders present in the meeting. The second consultative meeting was also held at Kohima on June 3, 1982 which re-affirmed to abide by the decisions of the first meeting. It was encouraging to note the people’s co-operation with the Church, and the respect shown to the Church and God.
To carry out the Church’s responsibilities for the implementation of these decisions, four rounds of state-wide tours were conducted by the NBCC Action Committee, comprising seven members, who also met the Church leaders in all the Associations and public leaders as well as people who were concerned and told them the aims and objectives of the Council to ensure a free and fair election in the State. While the seven-member team along with the Women Wing and Youth Wing of the NBCC Action Committee, comprising nine members, visited the leading educational institutions all over Nagaland. A joint tour of all the groups was finally made to sum up the concerted efforts which continued up to the polling day, that is, the 10th of November 1982. Besides all these tours, the respective regional Associations of Baptist Churches in Nagaland also held several camps at different levels, according to the convenience of the local inhabitants, to set up this program. In all these places, the aims and objectives of the NBCC were widely given and discussed. Hence, the public as well as the Church members were aware that the Baptist Churches in Nagaland were trying to do something concrete in this way. But the situation went from bad to worst. In all the past experiences we have seen the people’s failure to God and to follow men, I am a witness because I was Chairman. I have still reservations whether Naga people have changed their attitude or are the same way. According to ECI decision now Election is at the door, I hope people will learn the lesson from the past.
It is two times now that Naga people moved for solution first not election but Government of India still think imposing election will be right, I believe Government India imposing election means that Nagas have forgotten self determination. It is now 80 years that Naga patriots shed their precious blood, this cannot be forgotten.
Mikhail Gorbachev said “It is possible to suppress compel, bribe, break or blast but only for certain period, for the point of view of long term big time politics no one will be subordinate other”. Home Minister Rajnath said “we respect the sentiments of the Nagas”, in the same way we hope leaders of India will prevail their political wisdom.
