Morung Express News
October 17
Dimapur: “Our Meitei brothers are urged to see that their national case is well founded so that the danger involved in using unruly tribe or group for expediency against the Nagas may be safely abandoned before it is too late,” cautions a statement earlier made by the collective leadership of the NSCN (IM) and pinpoints that the UNLF should understand this before they destroy themselves. “The killings you unleashed among the revolutionaries in Manipur is also really bad politics. It is wise to take initiatives for rectification now.”
The joint statement issued by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, which was made available to The Morung Express, says, “This statement is written for the Nagas and the Meiteis that they may once again search their heart to discern their rights to be free. To blame others should not be the only way to justify ourselves; we have got to correct ourselves too if we are to be sure of what we must be.”
The NSCN leaders said the Meiteis living in Imphal valley would do well if they calmly redress the mistakes committed in “their unguarded moments” in the past and set themselves to be in the right course, at the earliest, “because the world does not accept anybody’s whim.”
“Is not your desperate attempt to use the Indian state and its might against the Nagas heading for your own destruction? Is it not suicidal for you?” the statement questions and declares, “It is prudent to think beyond what you feel. We are sorry; we do not see in it even a shade of farsightedness.”
The collective leadership also stated that Nagas were in no way responsible for the reverses which were suffered by the Meiteis as an outcome of the failure of statesmanship.
“Meiteis are at full liberty to determine their fate. Our only concern is that they do not make wrong choice again; that is, to say that there should be no repetition of the past like when they allowed both the good and the evil of the world to pass by them unawares. We are brothers and we will be brothers forever. We too can certainly be one but through freedom,” the declaration pronounces.
