All of us agree that selfishness leads to all sorts of problems in human relationships whether it is at the personal family level, the national level or the international level. But what we often fail to see is that selfishness is always followed by self justification when acts of selfishness results in chaos in human societies.
Now, the architectural designs for building a family house are something which lies mostly in the domains of a father. Without consulting anybody, a qualified father can build a family house. But if the same principle is applied by a politician to the building of a national government, then tragic consequences are sure to follow in the footsteps of such a foolhardy act. In such a chaotic political disaster, the politician (or self appointed national leader and his followers) will have to resort to all kinds of self justifications in order to hide their crimes. Once cornered by the consequences of their folly, they simply have to put the blame on somebody else’s actions so that they can justify their own acts in the sight of the public. Sadly, Naga history in modern times has seen many such leaders. But the sadder fact is that the Naga public seems to have swallowed such self justifications and write ups without examining the true facts of our history
Yes indeed, there was such a thing called the 16 Point Agreement in the late 1950s. Then there was again the Revolutionary Government in the late 1960s. This again was followed by the Shillong Accord of 1975. These three events (or rather the first and second) completely overturned our political movement and are affecting us even today. But overarching over all these events like a permanent Rainbow are the Naga political institution (NNC) and political Government (FGN) which was mandated by the Naga people. All the other breakaway factions and groups had tried their best to demolish these Naga people’s mandated institution and government in their selfish pursuit for political power and ownership of the splendid Naga story. When their efforts failed in these assaults, they next resorted to blaming the NNC and FGN of betrayal to the national cause through the signing of the Shillong Accord. It however must be remembered by all Nagas that all these past events were affected by “Pre-incident events” and “Post incident events.”If we do not understand these “pre” and “post” incident events, than a political leader can, after committing a political blunder zero in on an incident and put the whole blame on others to justify his own blunders.
With this broad picture of our history in the background, let us now focus our attention on the pre -Shillong Accord scenario and the pre-“present peace talks” scenarios.
- The pre-Shillong Accord (SA) scenario: The biggest Indian military operation against the Naga army was undertaken from 1973 to 1975. Battalion and Brigades of the then Naga army were forced to surrender from all the districts of Nagaland. Only a few Chakhesang and Angamis from the Kohima District and Tamenlong district of Manipur were able to survive without surrendering. The survivors were scattered here and there in small groups of four or five. With even the civil government on the brink of capture, the Shillong Accord was signed on Nov. 11, 1975. The suspension of military operations and curfew in seven Angami villages were requested by the signatories of the SA, but the request was granted only in three village areas. Despite these restrictions, President Zashei Huire rejected the first and third clause of the SA from the Dihoma Federal Emergency meeting on Dec.2, 1976-21 days after the signing of the SA.
As for the signatories of the SA, knowing that the Indo-Naga conflict was not resolved through the Accord, they settled down in the Peace camps after stating that they would abide by the terms of the 1964 Indo-Naga Ceasefire. (They would all have gone home to their families if the SA had solved the Indo Naga conflict).
As for the other parties to the present peace talks, what solutions they will bring or where they will go after declaring the outcome of the talks remains to be seen by the Naga public and the whole watching world. If they should make another blunder, I hope they will not again blame the Shillong accord or the Peace campers!
