Veroli Zhimo
There are several takeaways from the messages delivered during the Naga National Prayer Day organised by the Council of Nagalim Churches (CNC) at the Agri Expo, Dimapur on October 16.
Among others, Rev Dr VK Nuh had the fortitude to call each Naga out—from the Naga political groups (NPGs), the churches, the State political leaders, to the Naga public—for their inability to acknowledge their own mistakes and show repentance.
While many may choose to agree or disagree with the ‘six basic truths and mistakes’ highlighted by Rev Nuh on Sunday, perhaps all would concur that blaming and accusing each other would not solve the Naga problem.
Along these lines, it is prudent for the Naga people to look at the recent reaffirmation of the Covenant of Reconciliation (CoR) of June 13, 2009, by leaders of the NSCN (IM) and the Working Committee, Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) through the ‘September Joint Accordant’ document.
Signed under the initiative of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), the September Joint Accordant stated the two groups’ commitment to finding ways to transcend differences through cooperation, and to “dialogue in order to move forward, live in peace and overcome the cynicism, anxiety, and disagreements that have caused us to see each other as foes and strangers, rather than members of the same family.” Notably, it also called on the individuals and organizations to refrain from all forms of rhetoric, assumptions and agendas that are divisive.
Against this backdrop, the spirit of reconciliation that has been rekindled among the NPGs must also proliferate even among the Naga people from all corners of the Naga Homeland and sustained at all cost.
What will define how this community — broken apart by decades of animosity, distrust, suspicion and anger — comes back together is not what had happened but how the Naga people shape what is to come with the decisions being made today and tomorrow.
And today, as Rev Nuh succinctly put it, “Through all the mistakes and wrong doings against God and against the people, we must come to our senses of penitence.”
Peace talks with the Government of India will take care of itself if the Naga people speak in unison and through a common platform.
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