V. Sekhose, IAS (retd)
Former Advisor, Border Affairs, Government of Nagaland, Haralu colony, Dimapur
Naga Political issue is directly linked to the border issue. For it emerges due to the failure of the Government of India to fulfil its own commitment both in the 9 point agreement of 1947 and the 16 points agreement of 1959. Hokishe Sema, the former CM of Nagaland and former Governor of Himachal Pradesh succinctly mentioned in his book ‘Emergence of Nagaland’ that insurgency emanated in Nagaland due to the non-fulfilment of its promises made to the people of Nagaland by Government of India.
One has to understand why and how it is so. First in 9 Points agreement the Government of India offered to return all the tea gardens, the forests and its resources and amalgamate all the Naga areas under one administrative unit. But the government of India did not fulfil its own promises inspite of repeated assurances made to the NNC. This led to the Unilateral Declaration of Naga land for the Nagas only by the NNC in 1951 followed by non-cooperation movement which later turned into a violent agitation by the Naga political movement for independence.
This led to the formation of Naga Hills Tuensang Area in 1957. And the Prime Minister of India assumed that NHTA has brought some relief to the suffering Naga villagers, both from the Indian Armed Forces and from the hostile elements. Thereby, the Prime Minister of India decided to upgrade the union territory status to that of full-fledged state in 1958. However the IBI ( Intelligence Bureau of India ) advises that it should be done only on the demand of the people. Thus, the announcement was postponed and the NPC (Naga People Conference) leaders were told to submit a memorandum. Accordingly IBI helped to draft the memorandum which was finalized by the Naga People General Conference at Wokha in 1958, with the addition of point number 12 and 13 which is a reiteration of point number 6 of 9 Points Agreement of 1947. The IBI was taken aback by the memorandum due to the inclusion of these two points and ask the PM to be out of Delhi during the proposed meeting with NPC. Accordingly the meeting was conducted with NPC under the chairmanship of Secretary External Affairs Ministry in which IBI was included and the NPC was convinced that these two points i.e 12 &13 will be taken up after formation of the state of Nagaland as it is the duty of the Government of India to demarcate the boundary under Article 2 and 3 of the Constitution of India. Nevertheless even after 60 years no steps have been taken by the Government of India.
This issue known as the Nagaland boundary issue was taken up by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on the writ petition filed by the Government of Assam in 1988. The Supreme Court of India having minutely examine the submissions of both the states for 26 years — during which the Nagaland state clearly pointed out that under Article 363 of the Constitution of India all courts are barred from interfering on disputes arising out of certain treaties, agreements, sanads entered into by the Government of India.Thereafter the Hon’ble Supreme Court directed the Government of India to take steps in 2014. Till date, no concrete steps have been taken by the Government of India to resolve this long-standing issue and Nagaland state remains without a boundary.
In accordance with the direction of the Supreme Court the Government of India is duty-bound to demarcate the legal boundary of the state of Nagaland. Therefore, it can be assumed that the Government of India is making all attempts to enter into an agreement with the Naga Political Factions so as to overcome the need to demarcate the boundary of Nagaland according to the agreement already signed.
