(A riddle wrapped up in an enigma)
For any nation, securement of its National Interest (NI) is its first and foremost priority. Hans Morgenthau has put it this way“The meaning of National Interest is survival- the protection of physical, political and cultural identity against encroachment by other nation-states”.
India as a sovereign independent nation has always been trying to secure its NI particularly in terms of maintaining cordial relationship with its neighbors with regard to its borders. Under no condition can India jeopardize its NI due to itsy-bitsy internal skirmishes. The integration of princely states in to the Indian Union was a herculean task and even after attaining independence, India has witnessed several uprisings posing grave threat to the national integrity of India.
The signing of the “Peace Accord”,“Naga Accord” or“Framework Agreement” (interchangeably used)has drawn flaks from all across the country. Neither the Government of India nor the NSCN IM which has signed the Accord on behalf of the Nagas has come out clear on this issue. The NSCN IM ultimate demand has been the integration of Naga inhabited areas of Asom, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Myanmar and consolidating it to “Nagalim” (Sovereign Independent State of the Nagas).
The Nagas have their own distinct history and were never subjugated by others. The Nagas in their primitive years wereconfined in their own villages each having their own autonomy. The Naga villages could be compared with that of the Greek ‘City-States’. With the coming of the British Empire, they annexed some portion of the Naga Hills but they also took into consideration the uniqueness of the Nagas culture and tradition. The Nagas bestowed its mandate on the Naga National Council which was spearheading the Naga National Movement at that time through the Naga Plebiscite of 1951 wherein 99.9 % of the Nagas voted for a sovereign independent state. However the people’s aspirations were shattered with the signing of the Shillong Accord in 1975 led by the Naga National Council whereby the NNC accepted the Constitution of India on their own volition and agreed to lay down their arms and it was also agreed that the representatives of the underground organisations would have reasonable time to formulate other issues for discussion for final settlement. However any rational person can conclude that since the NNC has already accepted the constitution of India, any settlement arrived at will be within the Constitution of India and not otherwise. The question for a Sovereign Independent Naga state therefore does not arise. This was the biggest blunder committed by the NNC and till date the Nagas have not reposed their mandate on any of the factions although each faction claims to represent the aspiration of the Nagas. Many have termed the signing of the ‘Peace Accord’ or the ‘Framework Agreement’ on 3rd August, 2015 between the Government of India (GOI) and NSCN IM as ‘Historic’. Both the entities consider the signing of the agreement as breakthrough in the vexed Naga political issue. But it should also be noted that the term’ historic’ has several connotations. It signifies something as ‘Important’ or ‘Noteworthy’ or ‘in accordance with recorded history or the past’. Of course this implies that the so called historic signing of the agreement between the NSCN IM and the GOI is noteworthy but does this also imply that it is in accordance with the earlier accord viz. Shillong Accord signed between GOI and NNC?.
The contents of the agreement has been kept in total darkness and till date except the General Secretary of NSCN IM and some few Indian officials not a single soul has the faintest idea what the agreement is all about. Since the word ‘Naga’ is used blatantly in the accord, every Naga has the right and ought to know the content of the agreement. The NSCN IM has signed the accord without taking otherfactions on board. This would result in repercussions in the aftermath once the contents of the agreement are made known. It is also quite amusing to note that the State legislators have given their consent to endorse the ‘Agreement’ without actually knowing the content. This was least expected at least from the elected representatives whom we have given our mandate to represent us. The GOI should also have been rational while dealing with such sensitive issue. They should have considered whether the NSCN IM has the mandate of the people (which they do not) since they claim to represent the aspirations of the entire Nagas.
Since the NSCN IM has been fighting tooth and nail for a sovereign independent ‘Nagalim’ which is like crying for the moon. It is time we take a more realistic approach and stop fooling the public what cannot be transpired. The following are some of the contention why India would not concede on granting absolute sovereignty which the Nagas have been frantically demanding for the past 6 decades:
1. Constitution of India: As per the reports released by the GOI, any solution arrived at will be within the framework of the Indian Constitution. However, there is no such provision in the Indian constitution which deals with secession. Article 1 of the Indian constitution describes India as ‘Union of States’ and the term ‘Federation’ has nowhere been used in the constitution although the states are given large autonomy of power but this does not allow the states to secede and thus it is different from the real ‘Federal’ State where states can ask for secession through ‘Referendum’. Article 2 and 3 of the Indian constitution deals withformation of new states and alteration of state boundaries and their names but no state would agree to part their land in order to transpire the idealistic notion of the NSCN-IM i.e ‘Nagalim’. As such, the demand for absolute sovereignty is more or less a dream.
2. Relations with South East Asia: During the former Prime Minister P V Narashima Rao’s regime, the ‘Look East Policy’ was initiated with an aim to improve India’s relationship with the South East Asian Nations as well as to contain the growing power of China. However this was not transpired and continued to be implemented only in paper. When PM NarendraModi came to power, the ‘Look East Policy’ was changed to ‘Act East Policy’ to accelerate the relationship with SEA. It would facilitate new avenues to improve and strengthen India’s relation with South East Asian Nations. Also, there has been conflict over the South China Sea and as such India has been making efforts to make its presence more aware in the South China Sea by tying up with South East Asian nations. Already India has diplomatic relations with many of the ASEAN countries and have signed pacts with Indonesia and Vietnam. India’s oil company ONGC Videsh and PetroVietnam have signed a mutual cooperation agreement on the exploration of several South China Sea oil blocks. Recently, India has signed pacts with Thailand concerning trade relations as well as signing of MoU between Nagaland University and Thailand University. The booming economy of ASEAN has drawn the interest of many nations including India and granting sovereignty to the Nagas would obviously mean strained relationship with the South East Asian Nations.
3. Threat to National Integration:National Integration is what India has always been concerned about.It is an undeniable fact that India is a diverse country with multi ethnicity, language, culture and tradition. As such the framers of the constitution took into consideration the need to have a constitution that is congenial for every section of the society. But despite framing such viable constitution there was demand for separate nation by the Tamils demanding for ‘Dravida Nadu’. There has also been demand for ‘Khalistan’ by the Sikhs emancipating for ‘Greater Punjab’. India has faced threat from insurgent groups from Kashmir, Bengal, Manipur, Asom etc. Thus, even if the present Nagaland state is granted sovereignty, there will be hullabaloo over the entire India which the Government of India cannot risk to let the country burn up in flames.
4. China Factor: India’s relation with China has always been far from good. A close analysis of the relationship between the two countries reveals a rather clandestine approach taken by both the countries against each other. The ‘Siliguri corridor’ or the ‘Chicken’s neck’ is of strategic importance for India which connects the mainland India with the rest of the North-east. India cannot risk of losing NorthEast to its adversaries by grantingsovereignty to the Nagas. It is an obvious fact that China would annex the Naga inhabited areas once it is set free which would mean that the security of India will be threatened. Realistically speaking and from the strategic point of view, China has an upper hand with regard to the control of the North east region if in any case war ensues between the two countries. It is also easier for the Chinese to move their troops in to the North East region than for India to send its reinforcements to the North East. Once the Chicken’s neck is under the control of the Chinese, the entire North East will be cut off from the mainland India and India cannot risk of being a mute spectator while large chunk of its territory is annexed by its neighbors.
Besides, the Ministry of Home Affairs has also ruled out any possibility of giving separate flag and passport which the NSCN IM has been bragging about all these time. If absolute sovereignty is not the question then it means some tacit understanding have been arrived at between the GOI and NSCN IM at the signing of the framework agreement negating the tall claim of the NSCN IM that it would take nothing less than‘sovereignty’. With barely a month left for the agreement to reach a year it is time they stop fooling the public with false hope. With the passing away of Asu Isak, a tall standing figure in the NSCN IM set up, the power of the organization is now mainly concentrated in the hands of NSCN M(Muivah) one of the signatories of the Framework Agreement. Mr.Muivah should now take into consideration the aspirations of the people with due respect to the departed soul of Asu Isak who always wished for the well-being of the people. The more the contents of the agreement are kept aloof from the public the more serious the repercussions will be. The NSCN IM should also know that the ‘Framework Agreement’ that it had signed with the GOI should not lead to the ushering of new factions as was the case with the signing of the ‘Shillong Accord’ and should be meticulous while framing the agreement so that history does not repeat itself.
X Chophika Sumi, Dimapur, Nagaland
