Dimapur, December 3 (MExN): The Global Naga Forum (GNF) on Thursday expressed strong opposition to the speech delivered by the Nagaland Governor, R N Ravi on the 58th Statehood day on December 1.
“The speech, to say the least is puerile, self-contradictory and misleading,” it stated in a press release.
While agreeing with the Governor that the heart of the Nagas lives in its villages, the GNF challenged the Governor to call for a plebiscite in all the villages of Nagas to determine their political future.
The GNF accused the Governor of ‘glorifying’ those who “betrayed the Nagas and became collaborators of the oppressors to create a truncated Nagaland” and stated that the narrative of terming them as “the ‘Founding Fathers’ of Nagaland is oxymoronic.”
“History bears testimony to the fact that the creation of the state of Nagaland in 1963 and the politics of betrayal machinated and executed through carrot and stick and divide and rule policies has not worked and will never succeed,” the GNF asserted.
It further stated that the speech sheds light on the Governor’s ‘intent and inability’ to perform his role as the Interlocutor of the Indo-Naga political dialogue.
“Nagas are nearly 70 tribes and the attempt to drive a wedge between the Nagas by reducing the future of a people to 14 tribes as primary stakeholders is an affront to the aspiration and intellect of the Nagas,” the GNF stated.
It went on to add that “the centrality of RN Ravi’s speech that there can be no political solution above the present state of Nagaland is to advance this divisive agenda…”
It also stated that proclaiming that some people are standing as a road block to the aspirations of the people of Nagaland though the political talks have been concluded on October 31, 2019 harms India more than the Nagas, adding that the talks have been dragging on because of lack of political wisdom of India.
The GNF said that the Governor seems to think that the regimentation of the truncated Nagaland is the solution to the Nagas’ aspiration for self-determination. “Nowhere has a problem been handed down and accepted as the solution,” the Forum asserted.
“What the Indo Naga process need is a statesman as an interlocutor that will have the heart and intellect to objectively engage with the issue,” the GNF stated.
.JPG)
