Kolezo Chase
Spokesperson, Naga National Council
I am pleased to have gotten a response or rather a reaction from you in regard to my write-up “The Indo-Naga issue vis a vis China and Myanmar”. I do expect a mixed response due to the fact that there is a plethora of narratives that has given way to a spectrum of rhetoric in regard to the Indo-Naga issue. Regardless, the truth cannot be whitewashed with narratives and mere rhetoric.
I am in no way trying to confuse anybody but I do intend to brainwash people, as you have claimed, with the bare bitter truth no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Therefore, I would like to respond to the points you have raised as below:
1. The Naga National Council (NNC) has never taken a soft stand on the creation of the so called Nagaland state within the Indian Union. The NNC refers to it as a puppet state. Also, the creation of this so called state has been negated by the very fact that the Nagas had made their stand clear by the historic events that I have mentioned in the write-up “The Indo-Naga issue vis a vis China and Myanmar.” It has been further negated notwithstanding the creation of the puppet state due to the fact that the Indo-Naga Ceasefire of 1964 was signed between the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) and the Government of India (GOI). By doing so, Government of India concluded a ceasefire with the Government of a sovereign nation, i.e., the Federal Government of Nagaland. Hence, the question of a so called state within the Indian Union is irrelevant to the issue as the NNC holds to the fact that Nagaland is sovereign, independent and all Nagas to be one and indivisible. This is the reason why the Indo-Naga issue is not a political, economic or social issue of the internal affairs of India. It is a bilateral issue between two nations that has cropped up due to the naked and outright aggression committed by India upon Nagaland by violating her sovereignty.
2. To the Naga National Council the Shillong Accord is void ab initio. An accord which is not ratified has no legal basis and needs no rejection nor condemnation as the NNC had nothing to do with it. The NNC is the national institution by mandate and per legem, as it was established by the will of the people and not by narcissistic narrow ideologies or by force of arms. As a National Institution the NNC cannot stoop to a level of what some individuals or group do by exercising their individual liberty to sell or sacrifice themselves. However, if any organization overtly or covertly works to the detriment of the Naga national interest by claiming to represent the Nagas, such organizations can be termed as having committed treason; as it is with the militias who collaborate with the occupiers.
3. It is not the signing of the so called Accord that forced people away from the NNC; if it was so, late Mr. Venyi Rhakho would still be alive as he was the most vocal against the accord and even refused to sign it. However, he was murdered by those who professed to be against the so called accord. The same happened for the then NNC vice president late Mr. Thepusu Venuh who strongly upheld the stance of the NNC as opposed to the Shillong Accord. Many like Venyi and Thepusu have been butchered. The people you talk about, whom you claim to have been forced away from the NNC, have made Shillong Accord the foundation and footstool for their existence and livelihood and not patriotism. The narrative of narrow foreign ideologues has swept their minds away without them realizing their roots. Hence vain rhetoric, media theatrics, extortion, kidnapping, murder and violence have taken the place of truth. A mountain has been made out of a mole hill which has cost precious lives. I am, therefore, left in doubt whether those who speak so much about an accord which is void, to be true patriots or mere mouthpieces of our occupiers as even our occupiers has no legal basis to talk about it as an accord per se. It looks as if what the enemy cannot do to us we have done to ourselves by being manipulated and used by parroting a non issue into an issue.
4. The Chedema Peace Camp was established in 1964 aftermath the bilateral Ceasefire Agreement between the FGN and GOI. It is here that the FGN and NNC functions by continuing to defend the sovereignty and independence of Nagaland. The nature and strategy of our work today is different from the past as we no longer fight with arms but with the pen and voice of truth. It is not always necessary to fight just because we have a standing army or because we have arms. For a very long time we had to fight occupational forces; but there was a time we had to defend our lives and properties from the collaborators and their militias which wasted precious time and lives while we could be doing better. Do keep in mind that the Indo-Naga issue is not a freedom movement: in fact, it is not a movement at all. It is a case of Nagaland defending its sovereignty from the naked aggression committed by India. Thus, it is our duty in defending our nation by the use of the pen, our voice and intellect and keeping diplomatic relations and channels open with our other neighbours. This is what NNC/FGN does. And what NNC/FGN does not do is that we do not extort people or use threat for our whims and fancies. We uphold the Ceasefire of 1964 and hence, are at peace but you seem to be provoking us to fight. Are you provoking us to fight our own brothers? Is that the right cause? Or is it that you want the NNC to provoke our own people so that they can be targeted by the occupiers, collaborators and their militias? We have seen enough of bloodshed; we have been butchered by militias and do not want to provoke such a scenario again for the sake of peace, and the “unity” that you hold so dear above everything else. It is a waste of precious lives and time. We cannot pass our time with such evil trivialities by making a mountain out of a mole hill just to waste the lives of our own people whom we are supposed to protect and fight for.
5. With regard to referring the NNC as a faction, you may please refer to the Lakhuti Resolution of 1955. Accordingly, the NNC is not a faction or a political party/organisation but the National Institution of the Nagas. Hence no matter how many schools of thought may bloom; the NNC will remain the foundation of Naga nationhood which India wants to destroy. Some of the Nagas have also become very instrumental to dismantle and destroy NNC: these groups of people have, therefore, been termed as collaborators and militias. To discard the NNC will mean the very destruction of the foundation of Naga nationhood to which you also belong.
Besides replying to the points you have raised I, as spokesperson of the NNC, would like to put forth a couple of queries in regard to the write-up for which you have raised your points- Is the so called “Arunachal Pradesh” part of India or China? And what do you perceive of the military exercises conducted by the US and India near the LAC? I put these questions before you, becausethe NNC has clearly stated that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China in my write-up and also because I presume that you are well educated and represent a certain school of thought that may or may not necessarily be divergent from the present rhetoric and narratives that abound our so called intellectual circles and academia.
I have written whatever I have written not with the intent to divide but to put some bare facts forward. The intent is to not get swayed by our emotions but to come to the realization that we should not become mere tools in the hands of our aggressors. The task at hand is to let India, the largest democracy in the global arena, her people and its government to understand with clarity the true fact of the Indo-Naga issue; thereby to refrain from deploying a policy of war and peace, carrot and stick and divide and rule by fanning factionalism and the so called political groups: branding them as underground or armed insurgents who act as a double edged sword, inflicting casualties on Indian army soldiers on one hand and eliminating fellow Nagas as traitors on the other while thriving on extortion and taxing people in Nagaland in the name of sovereignty. If India cannot come to realize this; then to our perception, this is a subtle policy of covert and overt operation against the Naga people by using our own people to fight against one another. Both India and Nagaland must realize that this is a proxy war against the Nagas for GOI to contain the situation, since a fully geared up military aggression of the past cannot be repeated at this stage of the situation, but continuing with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) the carnage at Oting on 4th of December, 2021 is an eye opener for India and the world to see.
If my response does not satisfy your quest for the truth, you are very much welcome to my office or even my private residence for which you need no appointment. As spokesperson of the NNC I am open to discussion with any Naga who is genuinely concerned for the Nagas or would like to share their views. As a fellow Naga I am sure you have come across pressing issues during your tenure as a student leader and continue to do so as Mr. Muivah’s political assistant. I am happy enough to sit down and converse about such important matters over a cup of tea rather than having a paper war which will serve as leverage for the enemy to drive its wedge. God bless!
