BANGKOK, DEC 18: The Nagas and the Government of India may be at odds with each other, but the Yuletide spirit has won them over and together the negotiators from the two sides sang the Christmas hymn Silent night holy night at a restaurant in the Thai capital today.
Minister of state for youth affairs and sports Oscar Fernandes and National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah led the negotiators to the Naga peace talks in singing loudly: “Silent night holy night /All is calm all is bright; ’Round yon virgin Mother and Child /Holy infant so tender and mild; Sleep in heavenly peace /Sleep in heavenly peace.”
Then Fernandes suddenly announced: “Now I am going to play We shall overcome on my harmonica and you must all sing along.”
The minister pulled out his Piccolo harmonica and started playing. The Naga delegates accompanied him with gusto, singing: “We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh, deep in my heart. I do believe. We shall overcome some day.”
Guests at the restaurant wondered what it was all about as the booming chorus comprising the Naga delegates, including Muivah and his wife Ikres, Fernandes and his wife Blossom, former foreign secretary K. Padmanabhaiah and joint director of the Intelligence Bureau Ajit Lal sang: “We will walk hand in hand; we will walk hand in hand; we will walk hand in hand someday”. Others who knew how intractable the Naga issue has been hopefully exclaimed: “Amen!”
The singing started with a Naga delegate saying that they could not eat the Christmas cake that the minister had brought them without any singing.
“Where will be the Christmas spirit without any singing?” he said with mock indignation.
“Oscar, you must sing Silent night holy night!” Fernandes’s wife, who was accompanying him, requested. This was one order Fernandes could not disobey. That was how all the peace negotiators began singing in the restaurant, where they had been invited by Muivah for lunch.
The minister then persuaded everyone present to sample the cake, saying: “I must tell you that there is no choice involved in this. Nobody can refuse Christmas cake.”
When one of the delegates praised his voice, Fernandes was heard saying: “I never learnt to sing formally, but I enjoy singing. I am a base.” And where did he get his harmonica from? “I picked it up in Dubai once. It costs about a thousand rupees.”
“Having sung together and shared a Christmas cake, I think the only thing left is to sign a peace agreement,” someone wondered. “This is more a political cake than a Christmas cake,” announced a Naga negotiator but admitted: “This has turned out to be a very good event.”
Whatever happened to third party negotiators helping the Indian and the Naga negotiators to break the gridlock in the peace talks?
“There can be no third party mediator unless both sides agree. We have been negotiating directly with the Nagas. So there is no question of any third party mediation. But we can always explore new ideas which some experts may come out with,” Fernandes explained.
Muivah also tried to limit the damage by saying: “When I talked of third party mediation, I meant experts who are willing to share their ideas with us. I did not mean that an official third party mediation had been accepted by India or by us. The experts whose ideas we invite will not play any official role.”
The Naga leader said no one should object to expert opinion being sought as “today experts are needed more than ever before to resolve the Naga issue”.
Earlier in the day, representatives of the Dutch non-profit organisation Kreddha, the third party in question, briefed the Indian negotiators on their proposals for taking the Naga peace process forward. “What proposals? Which proposals? I have not seen any proposals,” said Padmanabhaiah, when asked about the Dutch proposals. Fernandes, however, said: “We will have to study the proposals and see what they are all about.”
(Courtesy Bharat Bhushan of The Telegraph)
