DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 16 (MExN): The Eastern Naga National Workers Association (ENNWA) under the NNPG Working Committee (WC) today expressed its opposition to the setting up of the proposed Pan Naga Hoho, adding that “Naga freedom struggle cannot end with a Naga cultural body.”
In response to the recent statement made by the Eastern Naga National Workers Union (ENNWU) of the NSCN (IM), it alleged that “the Pan Naga hoho is a noose on the necks of Nagaland tribes and not a cultural garland to bind all Nagas together, as is being propagated.”
“At this point of Naga history, Nagas outside the boundary of present Nagaland state must adopt rationale path and maintain emotional integration. We must preserve and strengthen our customs, traditions and our identity through new political and administrative arrangements. Nagas must enable neighbouring communities to progress alongside us. With this vision the WC leadership is reaching out to Kuki, Meitei, Ahom and other community leaders. There has to be a greater understanding among the people of the north-eastern region,” the ENNWA stated.
“With physical integration of Naga areas kept for future endeavour through agreed terms,” the ENNWA further said that “unless one has a sinister political agenda, the idea of establishing the so called Pan Naga hoho through an act of Indian parliament will be the end of any hope for Naga unity.” It claimed that doing so would be “seeking GoI's permission even on those subjects over which Nagas have absolute sovereign rights over their social, cultural and traditional customary practices.”
It added that the Pan Naga Hoho “can be simply interpreted as political annexation of Nagaland.”
Any cultural body in Naga homeland, the ENNWA said, should be a “voluntary affair among Naga tribes post Indo-Naga political solution.” It further stated that the tribes of Nagaland would “strongly oppose the Pan Naga Hoho without land integration.”
It meanwhile claimed that the "Agreed Position" signed between the Government of India and the WC, NNPG on November 17, 2017, “leaves nothing to ambiguity or illusion.” “It has outlined a clear practical political concept about who the Nagas were, where Nagas are and what Nagas ought to be,” the ENNWA said.
“It is not just for Nagaland state but also for Naga ancestral lands in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, without disturbing the present political boundary. Naga solution shall also benefit other communities since all must learn to co-exist in peace and harmony,” the association added.
The WC, NNPG, it informed, has shared a status paper detailing the blueprint of the Indo-Naga political solution which has been made available to all Naga tribal hohos, intellectuals and civil societies.
The ENNWA further hoped that the ENPO leadership and affiliated tribal Hohos, along with the rest of the Naga tribes, “will not be victims of dubious propaganda at play.” “Eastern Naga National workers, irrespective of political affiliation, must not be forced to chase a bubble called Pan Naga Hoho,” it said.
