(A response to Isak Sumi)
Kaka D. Iralu
Many half- backed Naga leaders have oft and on lamented about the so called “missed opportunities “and “missed buses” in the Naga political journey of independence and sovereignty. I for one cannot understand what these Naga leaders are talking about. To state the facts of our national stand which is embodied in the national Plebiscite of 1951, it is simply to be sovereign and independent of any nation on earth. Also, all the other important political and legal actions instituted and executed by the NNC on behalf of all Nagas as mandated by all Nagas, were also all done in support of this fundamental stand. These other events are the submissions of the 16 memorandums to both the British and Indian people before the transfer of power, the hoisting of our flag on 14th August 1947 etc. All these actions and events can be condensed into three words- LEAVE US ALONE.
Nagas were not asking any favor or demand from anybody- British, Indian or even the UN. And for heaven’s sake, Nagas are not a nation of hitch hikers standing on some international highway trying to hail down some passing buses to take a ride in somebody else’s bus in order to settle down in somebody else’s land! In this context, with reference to Isak Sumi’s article “Nagas missed opportunity” (Nagaland Post Oct.18, 2012)- So What, if a Bhutan status was offered to the Nagas through Kughato but was rejected by the Naga Tatar Hoho and the NNC Central executive where all the Naga tribes are represented?
In the first place, did all those gallant Sema national workers and innocent civilians who died in their thousand from 1956 to 1964 die for a Bhutan status under the Constitution of India? Was that event, yet another case of Nagas missing the bus like missing the earlier “Coupland plan” bus which would have transported us to England’s shores? Does Isak Sumi mean to imply that Angami’s narrow tribalism led to the exit of the mighty Sema warriors walking away from the national struggle which resulted in all the mess that we are in today? Yes, some Sema national leaders and soldiers indeed walked away from the national struggle through the Revolutionary government and surrendered their arms to India on August 6, 1973. But that event was never a collective Sema tribe walkout or betrayal of the Naga nation. Far from it, if you ask your elders, they will tell you that on that day of surrender, many Sema villagers stood on the edges of the Zunheboto ground and wept saying: “When our rice supplies ran out, we fed you with our millets and maize so that you could go on fighting for our independence. We went to jails for helping you. Now, how can you surrender all these arms to the enemy?” In total frustration and anger, these villagers even physically assaulted the surrendering soldiers so much so that even the corridors of the Zunheboto hospital were lined with injured people when all the rooms inside the hospital could not accommodate them. No, it was not Sema tribe surrender and I still salute all those patriotic Sema villagers who, like all other villagers of every Naga tribe, have courageously fought back against the invasion troops of India’s mighty army.
As for the appointment of General Mowu to the post of C- n C, General Mowu himself told me that neither he nor any of his Angami colleagues had anything to do with his appointment. I also know from other sources that Mowu was made General (Instead of Zuheto) because the Tatar Hoho members all felt that both the posts of Keya Kilonser (Defense Minister, held by kaito) and C-n-C should not be held by the Sema tribe. After all the Naga army was not a Sema army and the Semas and Angamis were not the only leaders in the NNC, FGN or the Naga Army. Lastly, I do not know who told you that an Angami Captain shot General Kaito. As far as my knowledge goes, I was told by Kaito’s own blood relatives that though an Angami shawl was left at the spot of Kaito’s assassination site, it was never the Angamis who did it.
