DIMAPUR, MAY 3 (MExN): The NSCN (R) today reaffirmed that Nagas “have every right to determine their own future” and have a “very strong basis for demanding their right to self determination.”
A press note from the MIP of the NSCN (R) however questioned why it is taking so long to resolve the Naga issue. “Is it because of the reluctant attitude of the GoI or is it because we have failed to put our case at the right perspective?” it asked.
It lamented that Nagas are “speaking in different tune and tone.” All Nagas count, the NSCN (R) stated, and called upon all Naga leaders that “every step we take must be as per Christ.” While acknowledging that “cent percent people cannot be brought on board to accept or reject, partially or wholly on any issue,” it however stated that “majority of the people must agree and accept.”
“In recent past, we have seen many critics in groups and in person, who were very critical on the likely solution,” it pointed out. The NSCN (R) however termed it a “common phenomenon for when a man in the form of Christ was also rebuked by the man of this world whom he came to save, this much of criticism is acceptable.”
“It is also true that, the Naga leaders used their wisdom and chose what was right for them at the time when Nagaland state was created as they were under tremendous pressure or there were serious humanitarian crisis but, it is also equally true that acceptance of Nagaland state as a 16th State of the Indian Union, was the first nail in the Naga coffin. Let us not allow our prejudices to become another nail against the long cherished desire of the Naga people for self determination,” the NSCN (R) said.
It meanwhile cautioned that if the Naga people fail to raise their concern in unison “we must consider that it is a lost battle we are fighting.”
The Naga people, it advised, “need to think seriously as we Nagas cannot waste our time and energy for eternity.” The NSCN (R) encouraged that all Nagas must “strive and think what we can do for the sake and cause of the Nagas and not, what we can take or make for ourselves from the Naga cause.”
