Dimapur, September 9 (MExN): A Joint Council Meeting of the NSCN (IM) has seriously viewed the news item carried by local dailies regarding the proposal of the Home Ministry of India to “offer the package to the different Naga groups by November”. “And when the political negotiation is going on at the highest Prime Ministerial level any proposal to come in the form of this or that package from the Home Ministry level itself is making a mockery of their Prime Minister’s Office and we find no wisdom in their approach”, stated a press note issued by the Ministry of Information and Publicity (MIP) while hoping that the GOI will not be so naïve to make such an approach to settle the Indo-Naga issue.
“If it reflects the opinion of the present UPA government to settle the Indo-Naga issue, an antithesis to the bilateral agreement signed between the NSCN and the GOI in 1997 and therefore not acceptable to the Naga people”, the NSCN (IM) statement went on to add while also stating that there was “no logic in inviting the various other groups while the political talk is continuing with the NSCN”. The MIP note also termed itself as the “only mandated political organization to negotiate with the GOI”.
The NSCN (IM) statement has also made it clear that the Indo-Naga problem is “that of forced occupation of Nagalim by India and it cannot be resolved through social, economic and cultural packages”. It stated that after killing hundreds of thousands of “our people, molesting and raping our mothers, sisters and daughters, after burning down our villages”, whether it was possible on the part of the Nagas today and tomorrow to bargain “our birth right with economic largesse from Delhi”. “It is simply not acceptable to the Nagas rather it is an insult and amounts to adding salt to the open sores”, the MIP note stated.
Affirming the inherent right as well as democratic aspiration of the Nagas to live together under one administrative roof as one family, the NSCN (IM) stated that this right cannot be compromised to please the interest of Indian people “whether for the better or the worse, whether for the richer or the poorer”.
The MIP note reminded that the NSCN (IM) had entered into the current Indo-Naga ceasefire and the political negotiations “after intense parley with the officials sent by the Prime Minister of India”. It disclosed that at the beginning the Collective Leadership was hesitant to be persuaded that the Prime Minister of India is really sincere to find a peaceful negotiated settlement to the Indo-Naga issue. According to the NSCN (IM), in the past the policies of the government of India towards the Nagas were short of sincerity and respect. It was only after the landmark meeting on 12th June 1995, Paris between the then Indian Prime Minister Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao and the Collective Leadership of NSCN wherein Mr. Narasimha Rao said: “I believe in political solution. We must solve the problem through political talks and dialogue. We should be patient enough and tolerant in tackling the problem”, the Collective Leadership of the NSCN agreed to declare ceasefire and start political negotiation with the Government of India (GOI).
The NSCN (IM) has pointed out that both the parties agreed in unambiguous terms that the talks shall be without conditions from both sides; the talks shall be at the highest level i.e., at the Prime Minister level and the venue of the talks would be anywhere outside India. The MIP note stated that keeping the Nagas divided and seeking solution through imposition of Indian will on the Nagas is never a sign of political maturity of the Indian leadership. The application of colonial ‘divide and rule’ policy by the Indian state towards the Nagas would create more problems for India than solving it, it cautioned.
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