Dimapur, July 18 (MExN): The NSCN (R) on Monday said that the “Naga cause had been always pure and pious with all the ingredients of a separate Nation,” but the routes chosen by the NSCN (IM) to achieve the goal had changed the course of the Naga political movement.
In a press release on Monday, the NSCN (R) criticized the NSCN (IM) stating that the latter had “always believed in the power of the gun to achieve anything and everything they want.” It said that the NSCN (IM) must “realize the fact that, it is because of their arrogance and an attitude of always right, they have lost the faith and trust of majority of the Naga people.”
It went on to state that “The Nagas who had for so many years dreamt of a separate nation involving thousands of sacrifices stands in disunity today, mostly because of the high-handedness of the NSCN (IM).”
“If the claims of the NSCN (IM) are true and if they had been seriously working for the greater cause of the Naga people than, the simple question is why are so much of opposition against their good deeds?” it questioned.
Further, the NSCN (R) said that the people of Tirap-Changlang-Longding (TCL) region “had only witnessed extortion, forceful abduction, kidnapping, harassment, torture from our own so called Naga Army of NSCN (IM),” as well as the killing of many prominent members from the region.
It maintained that numerous other civilians were killed, tortured or maimed in the NSCN (IM)’s “quest to create fear and psychosis in the minds of the innocent citizens of TCL only to expand their extortion network across TCL.” The people of TCL and Eastern Nagaland (Pangmi Region) are among the worst affected people in the entire gamut of Indo-Naga political struggle, it added.
Stating that the majority of the Naga people across the Naga homeland would be going through the same state of affairs, the NSCN (R) maintained that the “hegemony of NSCN (IM) must be halted and brought to an end to end the culture of threat and intimidation.” It claimed that the Naga political issue has been hijacked to suit someone's agenda, and as such, stated that both the “Wancho and Pangmi region as claimed by NSCN (IM) are appealed to introspect and see for themselves if the NSCN (IM) had done at least, one good thing in so many years for TCL, that deserve applause and support.”
“Your simplicity has been taken for your weaknesses to fulfill their personal agenda. You must know how our people had been socially, economically, politically exploited all these years,” it maintained while calling on the responsible members of the TCL region not to fall prey to elements that are destroying the very fabric of society but zealously guard the people to protect, prevent and preserve the future.
