FGN Kedahge Gen (Retd) Viyalie Metha takes the salute during the 75th Nagaland Independence Day celebration in Kohima on August 14. (Morung Photo)
Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 14
The Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) celebrated 75th Nagaland Independence Day in Kohima on August 14.
Addressing the gathering, FGN Kedahge Gen (Retd) Viyalie Metha said that Naga people celebrate Independence Day in commemoration of their historic independence declaration on August 14, 1947.
“And today Nagaland exists as a nation among nations by unceasingly upholding our National Rights which was meticulously laid down by our ancestors,” he said.
Gen (Retd) Metha expressed gratitude to the present National Workers of the Naga National Council and FGN for their unflinching sacrifices till today.
Presenting a ‘clear-cut brief Indo-Naga history’, Metha said that realizing the imminently drastic changes that were going to take place after the World War II, the wise Naga leaders attempted to keep good neighborly relationship between Nagaland and the upcoming independent country India.
They went to Delhi and met most of the Indian leaders while back home, the leaders, in order to clear any future doubt or confusion, declared Nagaland Independence a day before India’s independence.
However, he said that India’s forced occupation in Nagaland by its armed forces supported by promulgation of its black laws and its policy of ‘divide and rule’ in Nagaland had prolonged the suffering of the Naga people.
The Kedahge however said that, today it is encouraging to see the outcome of the FGN’s policy to maintain peace in the land by honoring the September 6, 1964 ‘Indo-Naga International Ceasefire Agreement’.
He urged the educated elites of the society to share the burden of the Naga nation, while adding that the path ahead is ‘however, dark and dreary because of the enemy’ and that it is strewn with stumbling blocks of political divisions, treachery, greed and insecurity.
While lamenting the confusion created by ‘narratives based on alien ideologies and dogmas’, Metha said that this has become “leverage to the aggressors to bring their laws upon us infringing our liberty and sovereignty.”
Metha however, said that this was in no way meant to discourage any one nor is it meant to further confusion but to ‘move forward unflinchingly for the glory of the nation’.
To do so, he said there should be no reason for any Naga to be confused as to who speaks the truth with reason and who does not.
Further, he reminded the gathering about the ‘Lakhuti Resolution’ passed by the NNC/FGN to protect the Federal Government and Naga Unity. “No Naga shall challenge or violate this solemn declaration. These are the foundations and the truth of Naga Unity and Naga Nation; nothing more,” he said.
Metha urged the Nagas to not remain complacent and indifferent for personal comfort “but suffer if we must, to strife and to preserve God-given freedom and liberty as a people and Nation.”
