Dimapur, February 24 (MExN): The National Security Council, National Socialist Council of Nagalim under the leadership of Isak and Muivah while responding to the remark made by MK Narayanan, National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of India, stated that the government of India was speaking in different tone of political terminology, sending a diabolical message that it (Delhi) had no worry to destroy the hard earned achievements of the Indo-Naga political talk that has seen more than 60 rounds of talks. “The statement of National Security Adviser MK. Narayanan on the Indo-Naga solution during his official visit to Kohima, Nagaland on 18 February 2008 has come as a bombshell. This is bewilderingly obnoxious, but such duplicity on the part of the government of India is not going to go down well in the future course of the peace process”, stated a press note issued by the National Security Council (NSC).
Reminding that the level of Indo-Naga political talks is on the basis of “Unconditional Terms”, the NSC lamented that all of a sudden, “conditioning the Nagas to come under the Indian Constitution to pave the way for Indo-Naga political solution is unbecoming of the Government of India that has appended its signature to the terms and conditions where accepting the Constitution of India does not arise”.
“Where is the political morality of India to stab the Nagas on the back?” it questioned.
The NSC statement also pointed out that for “all intents and purposes, the absurdity of the National Security Advisor (NSA) Shri. MK. Narayanan’s remark on the slow down of the Indo-Naga peace process was a total reflection of the Congress’s future scheme of political arrangement on the Indo-Naga issue”. It also stated that MK. Narayanan has turned himself to be the “bete noire of the Nagas” and condemned his “irresponsible utterance”.
The political statement from the NSC asserted that Nagas cannot be subjected to accepting what is not right historically and that India had no political morality to decide the political destiny of the Nagas. “It is the Naga people who will determine their political fate”, the NSC stated while adding that 10 years of Indo-Naga political process is long enough for India to “exercise a high level of lateral thinking and speak on the issue conscientiously”. “But choosing to take potshots at NSCN is not a good sign of sincerity, given the long wait of the Nagas that India will not change colour in the manner that reflects outrageous undermining of the Indo-Naga political issue”.
The NSC stated that “despite the unwarranted utterance of MK. Narayanan on the contentious issue of the magnitude of Indo-Naga political talks that has withstood pressure of vilification for the past ten years”, the Nagas are magnanimous enough to wait while pointing out that “Nagas have the propensity to wait as demanded by the nature of the Naga issue that cannot be expected to produce result in hurry”. “But if India thinks that Nagas aspiration will eventually wear out it is just delusions of grandeur”.
While stating that there was a “time for everything”, the NSC statement pointed out that this was not the time for India to retract on its commitment for an honourable Naga solution. “To speak on the Indo-Naga solution from the Indian constitution point of view is not an honourable solution for the Nagas. India cannot afford to act sanctimonious on this sensitive aspect. The fact that India, on July 11, 2002 recognized the “Unique History and the Situations of the Nagas” does not warrant seeking solution under the Indian constitution”, it stated and added that the NSCN Collective Leadership in consultation with the Naga people have time and again reaffirmed that apart from the Nagas history, there will not be any solution.
The NSC pointed out that at this “juncture of the new situation” it will be “absolutely preposterous for India to put the proposals of the Nagas into cold storage, and with more than 60 rounds of Indo-Naga political talks India cannot feign ignorance of the stand taken by the Naga people”. It stated that the Naga people’s political aspiration cannot be suppressed by India who is “already showing the colour of using Machiavellian policy against the Naga issue”.
During the talks with India, the Nagas have made its political stand very clear though India may have treated it as intrusive, the NSC pointed out “but that at the same time “Nagas have considered with due respect of what is best for India and what is best for the Nagas”. “But when nothing was forthcoming in the direction expected it is left to wonder where the government of India is leading the Nagas to. But the moot point is ‘what have the Nagas not done to bring an honourable solution’? Given the long period of peace process India need to be more realistic and not take shelter by inventing one pretext after another. This is against Nagas’ expectation from India to act in accordance with historical proprieties”.
The NSC reminded that ever since Indo-Naga peace process was started in 1997, Nagas have been conspicuously patient hoping that India will at last go for its tested wisdom and translate its humanistic ideals into action. “But unfortunately, India has totally failed to attach any value to Nagas patience. On the contrary the government of India is already playing a dangerous game of setting its own terms to the Nagas to accept. But to the Nagas who stand by its avowed political principle this is not the road to solution, but surrender to the constitution of India as the basis for the Nagas solution”.
The NSC also made it known that “pragmatic to the approach, Nagas are willing to do all for a mutually acceptable solution” but lamented that India “is conditioning the Nagas to surrender and this is never the solution”. “And for all practical purposes Nagas are not going to surrender to Indian terms”.
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