Benito Z Swu
The champion of the Naga Nationalist Movement was and is A.Z. Phizo. It was through his leadership that the Nagas who all had lived in blissful isolation, wedded to tribalism and tribal rivalry, were united and brought under one roof and banner of the NNC organization. It was Phizo who made the Naga movement a mass movement. Earlier there was no such thing as a composite Naga people until Phizo came on the scene. Being the first to have a very clear perception of the “unique history” and identity of the Naga people, it was Phizo who propounded and propagated the theory of the Naga Nation as such.
The fundamental foundry of the Naga future rests on this “unique history.” Today, the NSCN(IM) has been able to carry over this pearl of enlightenment and reality that Phizo made known to the Nagas for all time to come, and influence the Government of India to study for themselves the reality of it all and to officially acknowledge the “unique history” of the Nagas. Invoking the unique history of the Nagas is naturally invoking the spirit of Phizo for the Naga people. It is, thus, by invoking the spirit of Phizo that the ‘framework agreement’ has been signed between the NSCN(IM) and the GOI.
The NSCN was formed in February 2, 1980. It was born out of the NNC. Both Isak and Muivah are products of the NNC stable. Infact the DNA of all the NPG today is that of the NNC. It was to the misfortune of the NNC that six rounds of straight talks between the FGN and the GOI, stretching from between February 1966 to October 1967, failed to yield the desired results, and instead, created discontentment, misunderstandings, distrust, and division within the rank and file of the FGN. This made it all the more difficult to bring about a clear directive from the authority of the NNC, and thus, the solid body of the Naga National Movement had to suffer cracks and hastened disintegration.
The Naga National Movement, from the very beginning, was never tribalistic in context. It derived its strength and momentum from the strong brotherly bond of oneness. This spirit of Naganess is what the ‘The Naga Voluntary Plebiscite of 1951’ is all about. As such, the formation of the RGN in 1968 and its eventual surrender in 1973 cannot be justified, what-so-ever the then situational circumstances. It undermined the Naga National Movement like no other one event ever had, and to the core.
The signing of the Shillong Accord in 1975 by a section of the FGN further compounded the problems for the NNC. The movement and its spirit, however, remained very much alive with the National Assembly of the NNC condemning the Shillong Accord in 1978.
Since then, the NSCN was formed, and which has further splintered into various other factions of the same which we know today. The ‘Framework Agreement’ of August 3, 2015, is a very welcome breakthrough brought-about by the NSCN(IM) and it indeed deserves the unequivocal, wholehearted, and unabashed support of every Naga. It is all, however, looking too farfetched to expect the Naga people to agree and support an agreement which they have absolutely no idea about. Nagas have been betrayed before, even with a signed agreement, and is twice shy today as far as agreements are concerned. There is the danger of the NSCN(IM) giving credence to all the rabble rousing and, thereof, the undeniability of it all by enveloping the contents of the framework agreement from the people. Not just the public, but also the entire political spectrum in Nagaland and its civil society is in the dark. And we know that political parties and civil societies exists because of the people. This is not doing anything in convincing opinions to the side of either of the negotiating parties. The all inclusive attitude of Phizo with which he went for the Naga Plebiscite in 1951 should have ideally been the spirit with the NCSN(IM) when it came to the framework agreement too. Naga people today have a yearning for a participatory involvement when it comes to the decision of their fate and future, but sadly, they are being denied even at the informatory level.
Somewhere near mid-August of this year, NSCN(IM) General Secretary, Th. Muivah, and GOI’s Interlocutor for talks, R.N. Ravi, had issued a joint communiqué whereby they assured that talks were progressing in the right direction and that both sides were closer than ever before to the final settlement. They also expressed their optimism that it would be sooner, rather than later. Interlocutor, R.N. Ravi, went on to say that though the Framework Agreement has not been published as yet, he had made it clear to all the stakeholders that the Framework Agreement is not the final settlement. Hence, it would be premature to release it in the public domain. Since the government would be publishing the full agreement as and when reached, there was no question of keeping the public in the dark.
This, one believes, is turning the issue upside down. At the risk of repeating, but in all fairness and honesty, the people are not desirous of knowing the status of the ongoing talks when they have no idea of what the talk is all about. People of Nagaland knows very well that the Framework Agreement is not the final agreement. Hence, before the final agreement is inked, inorder to eliminate anything untoward in the future, they want to know the skeletal frame of the talks. This is a reasonable approach and legitimate right of the people, especially in a democracy, which both the NSCN(IM) and the GOI has to think seriously about.
“It is the Naga factor, not the Indian factor.” Gen. Secy. Th. Muivah had this to say about the ‘danger of self-defeat.’ “If we cannot succeed today, we will not blame heaven or earth, we will blame ourselves.”
It is so true, and care has to be taken so that it also does not become an exclusive factor instead of being the Naga factor.
