Kolezo Chase Spokesman, Naga National Council, Chedema Peace Camp The Government of India and its people and the world should know that the Indo-Naga problem is not a Political issue causing a constitutional crisis in India by the Naga demand of Sovereignty or Independence from India. The fact of the Indo-Naga case is that Nagaland was not and is not Indian Territory. During the British rule some Naga territories were under the British administration. But it is on record that ‘No treaties or engagement had been made with any of the Naga tribes.’ The Nagas, therefore, asserted their inherent right to freedom for all the Nagas by submitting a memorandum to the Simon Commission in January 1929 requesting the withdrawing British Imperial power not to club the Nagas together with India with which the Nagas had no connection except through the British administration. Following this they affirmed their freedom by declaring their Independence on 14th August 1947, and a day after India was granted her Independence by the British on 15th August 1947. The declaration of the Naga Independence was officially conveyed to the UN and the British India Government by Telegram. Even after the declaration of our Naga Independence, the Naga National Council (NNC) sent out Good Will Missions to reach the Indian leadership to have mutual understanding for the future relation between the two nations. But they disregarded all these attempts with arrogant belittling attitudes by castigating our declaration of Independence as the work of a few educated Naga people. In order to prove to India and to the world the genuine love of their country and declaration of their Independence, the Nagas reaffirmed it by a voluntary Naga National Plebiscite in 1951, conducted by the Naga National Council (NNC) led by A.Z Phizo, the president of NNC with the result of 99.9 ‘/, for Independence. No form of coercion or threat was deployed by the Naga National Council, and Government of India was officially informed ahead and its representatives and observers were officially invited to authenticate this event and some Indian observers were there too. But in total disregard to this Historic Naga National Plebiscite, Govt. of India again brought her ballot boxes for the Nagas to vote in the first Indian General election in 1952 after her Independence. But the Nagas, in conformity with their National Plebiscite in 1951, maintained a firmed Naga National stand of total non-participation in this Indian General election without force or any form of coercion on the part of the Nagas. Though Ballot boxes were placed all over Nagaland, ‘not a single vote was cast and all the ballot boxes were taken back empty.’ The above events are evident enough that the Nagas had already become a Nation and not a Nation yet to be. In size and population India and Nagaland are incomparable but as nations they are equal like one man one vote in democracy regardless of their size. This is the very unique history of the Nagas. The denial of the Naga National right by India, therefore, is tantamount to the denial of the right of man and Nations and rape of democracy in the free world of which India is the largest. After the first Indian, General Election, Nehru's regime at New Delhi started carrying out civil suppression and oppression against the Naga Civil Society and later sent in the Indian Army in 1954, resulting in a full scale Military operation against Nagaland. Thus Indo-Naga war started. This is an act of aggression committed by newly Independent India on Independent Nagaland. Therefore, the Indo-Naga problem is the outcome of India,'s act of waging war on Independent Nagaland by violating the Sovereignty of Nagaland. The war was brought to a halt only by the international bilateral Cease-fire of 1964 between Govt. of India and Federal Government of Nagaland. The Cease-6re agreement has been honored and respected by the Naga National Council (NNC) and the Federal Government of Nagaland (F N) and will continue to do so. We need the understanding and statesmanship of the common people of India to live in peace as two friendly neighbors. India the largest democratic country in the world, now striving for membership in the UN Security Council, and was also the acclaimed liberator of Bangladesh from Pakistan by discarding the UN Charter that 'a member State will not dismember another member State,' and presently playing host to the exiled Govt. of Tibet, we trust. Government of India will have the conscience and wisdom to let go her interference and occupation of Free Nagaland which will always seek and endeavor for friendly relation with all its neighbors in general and the Indian Government in particular. The Nagas, therefore, are one and united and will always be as we have shown the Government of India and the world by events cited above. So, India's dilly and dallying with the present scenario is an anachronism in the context of the problem between the two Nations, India and Nagaland.
