Dimapur, March 17 (MExN): The Naga National Council (NNC) on Thursday accused India of trying to emerge as the ‘champion of peace’ in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “on fallacious claim that India had no history of invading any nation in her neighbourhood or anywhere in the world.”
“The statements of Indian Vice President, Prime Minister and Defense Minister in recent times on this line were blatant lies,” NNC Joint Secretary Acüyi Vadeo said in a press release, while adding that “India should clean her mess in Nagaland first before projecting herself as a champion of peace.”
The release stated that “Nagaland has clear history of a nation as real as other nations in the world,” and on August 14, 1947— preceding both India and Burma’s independence declarations—the Naga National Council (NNC) formally declared the independence of Nagaland as a nation.
“On the same day NNC informed India by Telegram, and Cabled to HMG and UNO for information and record... It remains a living testament that Nagas neither joined Indian Union nor the Union of Burma. In the very independence declaration, NNC explicitly stated that Nagas did not accept the constitution of India,” the release stated.
According to the release, when the all efforts to integrate Naga territories into the Union of India failed, India invaded Nagaland and continued her war in Nagaland up to 1964 when the International Ceasefire Agreement was signed between the Government of India and the Federal Government of Nagaland.
“Troops moved into Tuensang (Nagaland) by October 1955, and the war with the Nagas started from then,” the release stated, quoting a passage from former Chief of Indian Intelligence BN Mulik’s book (My years with Nehru, 1948-1964)
Terming it as a “naked aggression on the sovereign Nagaland,” the NNC asserted that “It was a war and there is nothing else to claim by India.”
It went on to state that, over the decades long Indo-Naga conflict in Nagaland; “the Indian troops attempted extermination of the Nagas from the face of the earth but failed,” and “over a hundred thousand Nagas were killed by the occupational Armed Forces of India and is still continuing till recent times.”
Stating that India has “blood-stained hands,” the NNC further asserted that “As long as Indian occupation of Nagaland continues, she has no right to stand up as peace broker. India should clean her mess in Nagaland first before projecting herself as a champion of peace.”
“Nagaland is not Indian territory and Nagas are not Indians,” NNC asserted and further said that India should withdraw “from Nagaland so as to restore the honor of the sovereignty of Nagaland.”
