DIMAPUR, JULY 31 (MExN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) today urged upon neighbouring communities to “be magnanimous in their approach and wholeheartedly support the Integration of Naga contiguous areas as part and parcel of the impending solution.”
“Rest assured that Naga people would never snatch or encroach even an inch of land that belongs to other communities/non-Nagas, while asserting that no matter how long it takes Naga Peoples aspiration to live together as a people shall persist,” stated a press note from NSF President, Kesosul Christopher Ltu and General Secretary, Imtiyapang Imsong.
“We do not wish to infringe on the rights of others and merely state our claims on what belongs to us, so far as our ancestral lands are concerned,” it added.
The NSF called upon all people to understand the Nagas’ dilemma, and “how the historically once holistic Naga people now lay divided-forcibly dissected, and the fragments of the Naga people tossed into arbitrarily marked areas during the twentieth century by outside invaders who did so for their attainment of geographical and administrative gain with no consideration for the indigenous people of the land at the time.”
It said that the Naga people have a “justified right to call for a claim on the integration of its land and people.” The NSF said it is the “birth-right of every Naga to reach for re-consolidation of our people's sense of identity and live under one administrative roof that governs us with complete understanding of our needs as a distinct indigenous tribal community and that acts as a safeguard to our safety and our future.”
While acknowledging the apprehension of neighbouring communities, the NSF said that the present peace process and its outcome is “expected to ease down the prevailing tension in the entire North East region.”
“As neighbours since time immemorial, we expect our neighbours to be more sensible in its utterances and actions as provoking each other will only lead to hatred and animosity between us rather than strengthening our long cherished neighbourly relationship,” it added.
It also asked for people to realize that “there are forces within as well as outside our communities who have been playing hide and seek game to instigate fight among us all these while.” “And for too long we all have been made a victim of such gimmicks.”
Meanwhile, the NSF expressed dissatisfaction at the slow progress of the ongoing political talks, and urged both the Naga political groups and the Government of India to be more sensitive to the growing anxieties that the Naga people suffer without respite from this delay of finding a proper solution.
“All the Political entities are urged to work swiftly yet carefully on the issue of integration of the Naga contiguous area as the Naga people have every right to live under one political roof,” it added.
