What prompted me to write this article is the happiness that Khango group of NSCN(K)’s willingness to join the negotiation with GoI for settlement of our political issue and of the fact over ground Naga leaders need to take a unified stand on the issue.
Chances of BJP’s slogan “Election for Solution” becoming a reality seems to be fading and so is the Hon. Governor statement that solution is going to come in six months (post election). It is becoming more evident that the ball is in our (Naga) court. With over sixty years of insurgency and two decades of negotiation, Nagas are at the most crucial period of our existence and we really have to take stalk of our situation. Sadly,we are so much divided amongst us at different levels. Everyone seems to be talking about unity but like a scarce commodityunity is getting harder to come by, it seems!Itjust isn’t happening! Has the years of insurgency thickened our skin and brain into that level of complacency that makes us insensitive to shape of things to come?
At the over-ground level, we see a self-divisive attitude made by groups not seeing eye-to-eye for ambit of reasons and therefore not willing to sit together and thrush out issues in the supreme interest of Nagas. At under-ground level, the ideology and goal are the same and what could possibly be a singular group fighting for sovereignty of one small nation, is splintered into factions because of supposedly differencesin national principlesand the resultant non-inclusive attitude.
In view of the era of globalization and the state of interdependent existence between countries, it has become compelling on us to seek permanent solution to the vexed Indo-Naga political problem. It is apparent that none of us are doing our part to the fullest and a day is coming when posterity is going to ask us the reason for our complacency. It is time for all Nagas who matter and who thinks he/she is worth the salt, over-ground or under-ground Naga, man or women alike stand up, want and desire permanent solution and act upon it. Unless that happens, you don’t have to be a seer to predict that chaotic bloodshed may follow again, God Forbid! Fellow Nagas, it is wake up time!
Or, are we Nagas heading for making our turmoil a century of complex conflict? The Philippines’ communist insurgency which started in the 1960s and which has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives is recorded as the longest insurgency in Asia and the world at large. But, Naga insurgency is standing out as the world’s longest insurgency. Even the conflict in Northern Ireland which was actually fought for only around 30 years (1968-98) although the religion based political Irish conflict sprayed for over a century since 1801 perhaps even before that. The Irish people generally refer to this long conflict period euphemistically as ‘The Troubles’. The magnitude of the trouble can be gauged from the numbers of graves at Milton Cemetery, the walls painted with graffiti and reminiscences from the trouble days and the typical buildings constructed. The huge Milton cemetery has50,000 graves. Sometimes I feel that, in view the fact that Naga insurgency is the world’s longest trouble, leaders of world specially leaders of South East Asia and Great Britain in particular owe it to us and intervene of a permanent peace.
If plebiscite of 1951 is a countable event then, the feeling of the mass today should be as important as then. The move towards the solution must become a mass movement. For that, we need a unified tribal stand. Nagas must move with one hope and one vision. Foremost is that, the tribal body leaders must be united on the issue. You can’t be pointing fingers for disunity at others when you yourselves are not united. Immediate restructuring of Naga apex tribal bodies is the call of the hour. Here is my suggestion.
Naga Hoho(NH) and the Naga Tribes Council (NTC)in the present form must be dissolved immediately to make way for an amicable and consensus restructuring. Naga tribal bodies may thenbe re-organized in the following manner.
Let Naga Hoho be the apex pan Naga body to be re-formed consensually by affiliating State Level tribal bodies and represented accordingly.
Let there be a single state level Naga tribal body in each state to be formed consensually by representatives of regional level tribes bodies.(e.g. NTC of Nagaland).
Each classified region to have a tribal body as is already the vogue e.g TPO (Tenyimi Public Organization), CNTC (Central Naga Council), ENPO (Eastern Naga Public Organization) etc. It will be better to use a uniform nomenclature.
The individual Tribes Hoho/Organization will come underthis level.
Chairmen/Presidents of all Naga Tribal bodies must immediately meet to debate and discuss to resolve all discords and do the needfull. For Nagaland, I would even suggest that the Govt. of the day to move a bill in the State Assembly to legalize and give a statutory status to tribal bodies at primary Tribal Level. Having done this, Nagas then can with dignity and esteem, take a unified and strong stand on any issue be it Naga Political issue or otherwise. Not before!
I am very glad that, the Hon’ble speaker of the current Assembly has initiated and constituted the Joint Legislators Forum on Naga Political Issue. Leaving aside party affiliation, all the 60 members of the current Assembly has agreed to facilitate the ongoing peace process in every possible ways. To help bring into one platform the negotiating Naga groups and also try to rope in those who are not in negotiation and to urge upon the negotiatingparties to expedite the process for early settlement of the vexed Naga political issue. As with the past two Houses, the current Assembly members including the two MPs are committed towards this end.
