Your News-item “NPF has lost its referendum on Naga integration” 9th March, shaming NPF and its leadership seems a ridiculous statement of self seeking individuals. It is absolutely wrong to assume Nagas in Manipur do not support Naga integration and Naga aspiration. Nagas are Nagas wherever they are no matter what profession you are in and which political party you associate with, even the congress Govt. in Nagaland had passed a Bill on Naga integration earlier. Poor performance of NPF in the recent Assembly election was due to other dynamics of electoral politics which NPF has nothing to be blamed for.
“We want solution not election” the slogan of Naga Hoho and the UNC still rings in the ears of the people. UNC announced nomination of their own candidates before people forgot the boycott call. All three UNC candidates were returned from Ukhrul District in 2007 Assembly election with the same slogan of Naga integration. Immediately after the election the UNC MLAs signed an undertaking with the Govt of Manipur that they will uphold territorial integrity of Manipur. Even the MP elected with the support of the armed nationalists took oath that he will uphold the sovereignty and the integrity of India contrary to our aspiration. It was this confusion that people this time considered ‘ Naga Integration’ as a cheap electoral slogan rather than a referendum on Naga aspiration.
Participation of the armed nationalists in Indian election while demanding Sovereignty was also perceived as a compromise on the Naga issue and therefore people felt what is at stake is now their own welfare and voted for the ruling congress party. The change of mind from boycott to participation among Naga leadership in Manipur may have been necessitated by peoples welfare and if that was the case the purpose is defeated by the open support of armed group because the PDA MLAs elected with their open support were side lined in Manipur Assembly in the preceding term. We will never be able to also send a Naga MP for the outer parliamentary constituency with the agenda of Naga integration as long as Meiteis of Thoubal district in the valley remain part of the outer parliamentary constituency.
For alternation of state boundary constitution requires the consent of the concerned state. Therefore, what we should rather focus at is to increase the number of Assembly seats in the hills. At present except for two seats in the valley the rest has only 17 thousand plus to 20 thousand electorates whereas, in the hills except in 5 Assembly seats all the seats have 30 thousand plus to 50 thousand plus and yet, the Meiteis by virtue of being majority rejected delimitation in the state in year 2000 which is in violation of the Constitutional Amendment. Delimitation should be force to implement. The Assembly seats in the valley are also enhanced by the tribals living in the valley who hold their enrollment in the hills as well. Sensing the disparity in the number of electorates the election authority in the state is resorting to rampant deletion of voters in the hills, for instance, Lunghar Village of 44 Assembly constituency had 1500 + voters in 2007 election and additional list of 50+ was submitted in 2011 but the list was brought down to 1200 in the recent election and this is reportedly happening in almost all the villages.
Campaign for Naga Integration should not end with election, the process of educating the Naga civil society must be sustained in normal times but involvement of armed nationalists in party politics will be counterproductive because this is in a way to find conflict with our own people and it has even the risk of losing image and credibility of the leadership. But questioning Naga aspiration for integration of all Naga inhabited areas will only indicate the questionable integrity as a Naga.
Jubilate Kazingmei
Email id: jkazingmei@gmail.com
