‘Brutal honesty’ goes both ways, GNF rebuttal to SC Jamir

Dimapur, February 21 (MExN):  The Global Naga Forum (GNF), an organisation that works for the rights of the Naga people globally, has issued a rebuttal censuring former Chief Minister of Nagaland and Governor Dr SC Jamir for his treatise titled, ‘Whither-Ward is Nagaland Moving?’ 

The public statement issued by the GNF Media Cell on Monday noted that the former CM and Governor’s call for “brutal honesty” goes both ways. While stating that he is “free to say and write what he wants about the Indo-Naga political problem and the state of affairs in Nagaland”, the Forum said there is one “important caveat.”

“Among all Nagas to date, he has made the most successful and illustrious political career for himself in the service of the Indian Government by opposing his own people’s cause: Naga people’s political and human right to self-determination,” the Forum asserted.  

Pointing out Jamir’s role in the Naga People’s Convention and the 16-Point Agreement that led to the creation of the State of Nagaland, his tenure as State’s Chief Minister for 18 years which was followed by governorships of Goa, Odisha, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, the GNF stated: “It must be easy and comforting, even self-congratulatory, for SC Jamir sitting on his exalted perch of rare privilege to look back on the wreckage his long public life helped create in Nagaland, and to condemn it now as ‘heaps of dry bones.’” 

It further claimed that the former Chief Minister “does not speak for the Naga people,” and that he has “made a habit and a career of misrepresenting a minority Naga voice as though it were the voice of the Naga people.”

“For him, Nagas who do not reside in the state of Nagaland don’t count. So he reminds us that Naga integration is off the negotiation table with India. And Naga peoplehood and our right to political self-determination are alien concepts to him. So self-determination, too, is off the negotiation table,” it said, adding that the existence of Nagas outside of Nagaland – in Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Northwest Myanmar – “is a non-issue” for him.

This, it maintained, is because he has built his life and ambition in direct opposition to Naga unity and integration.
The GNF further alleged that the former CM and Governor pursued a divisive ideology, “dedicated to surrendering his people’s rights -- including the right to life -- to military laws like AFSPA and to the will of the Indian government he serves,” in exchange for personal advancement,  which he equated with the advancement of the Nagas. “Because his fortunes are tied up with the Government of India, must he force the Naga people to do the same?” it posed.

The GNF viewed that Jamir has the right to condemn the Naga Political Groups’ “brotherly ruthless killings” and “extortions,” but contended that he has no right to claim a rightful place in Naga people’s political movement.

Further, the GNF accused Jamir of wanting public sympathy and wishing “to be free of the guilt of selfishness and betrayal buried deep within him, which he projects on to the Naga Political Groups,” and noted that it “cannot help him unless” he looks into the mirror and recognises for himself who he really is, what he has done, and what he continues to do, including the opposition for “cause of Naga self-determination and freedom from laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).” 

Countering his question, “Wither-ward is Nagaland Moving?”  the GNF asked, “What is so wrong for the Naga people to want to live together in an undivided ancestral homeland and to govern ourselves without an external power imposing its will on us with military force?”