DIMAPUR, AUGUST 14 (MExN): “We were free Nagas… we are today and we will be tomorrow…” was the firm declaration of the ‘Kilo Kilonser’ of the NSCN/GPRN, Rh. Raising Saturday, August 14 at Camp Hebron. The ‘Kilo Kilonser’ was addressing the 64th Naga Independence Day celebration held at the headquarters of the NSCN/GPRN, where Raising was the chief guest.
Reiterating the stance of the collective leadership of the organisation on the decades old Indo-Naga political crisis, he said: “We will never give up on peace and solution however, hard the road is”. “Can any power stop a pregnant mother in labour from giving birth?” he challenged. “Since the problem is political in nature; solution must be a political one”. However, “a solution within the parameter of the Indian constitution cannot be acceptable”, he emphasized.
Even history bears testimony that Nagas as a people were never a part of India, he maintained while adding that Naga villages were functioning like ‘independent city-states’, since time immemorial, even during the entrance of the British into Naga territory, free of any outside control.
When the British left India, “We Nagas had declared freedom”. To this effect Indian aggression against the Nagas began, he said. “Enemies came from all corners in the form of military might and communal forces…” However, the ‘enemies’ ultimately realized that the aspirations of a free people cannot be suppressed forever, he held. “We Nagas are innocent victims of their war…This war shall have to be eliminated or else it will eliminate us”. “Our survival lies in our decision to resist aggressive laws and aggressors”.
Crediting the Government of India and the NSCN/GPRN for the prevailing peace, he however maintained “peace alone is not enough; it must also carry a political message”.
“A solution that guarantees inter-dependent relations…” Peace, he said, will come when there is mutual recognition of rights.
Raising further said that the NSCN/GPRN stands by the Chiangmai resolution. “During the tour of the Ato Kilonser, he had maintained that reconciliation is to save the nation not to divide the nation”. “This is the stand of the NSCN… like it was understood in Chiangmai”, he said. ‘Monyakshu Conclave’, he said was only between two groups.
With reference to the Manipur state government’s stand against the organisation’s demand for ‘integration of all Naga dominated areas’, he said “We are not opposed to Meiteis but we are opposed to the communal forces of the Manipur government”.
Representatives of Naga civil societies also spoke on the occasion. General Secretary of the Naga Hoho called upon every Naga to come under one voice while urging the government of India and the Naga leaders to exercise sound wisdom while in the pursuit of a solution. Toeing a similar line president of the Naga Council, Dimapur urged for the unification of all Nagas while hoping for a joint celebration of a Naga Independence Day by all the factions. “It should start from you and me”, he called.
“What we are witnessing today is the celebration of an inalienable right”, said the Convenor of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation”. The convenor on behalf of the FNR urged the signatories of the ‘Covenant of Reconciliation’ to meet at the highest level without delay to consummate the movement for Naga reconciliation.
NPMHR while congratulating the tenacity of the Naga leaders to resist aggression reminded that it is only a symbolic celebration. “Despite our rhetoric we have so little to show…We have to convert out political right into reality”. Presidents of the United Naga Council, Manipur and Naga Women Hoho, Dimapur were the other prominent speakers.
