Kaka D. Iralu
I will respond to your article on the following points: 1. If India, as you believe, will never agree to a Naga nation, that is India’s problem and not our problem. As for ourselves, we know that we are a nation and will always be a nation whether India or Silverstein or even the whole world disagrees with what we know about ourselves. Please also do not ever think that we are asking our independence from India or Burma. We are not asking our Independence from anybody including the UNO. As far as we are concerned, the declaration of a peoples independence over their own territories is a prerogative right of any nation on earth. As for India, we Nagas had already declared our independence on 14th August 1947 before India was granted her own independence on 15th August 1947 by the British. Therefore, the question of we asking independence from India does not arise at all. Whether India recognizes it or not, we have always been an independent nation in history. And we, as a people, have never ever thought that without India’s approval, we cannot have our independent existence as a nation. Please also note that whereas India was granted her independence by her former British colonial rulers, we Nagas declared our own independence because despite 115 years of conflict with us, the British were able to set up their administration only in 30% of Naga territories.
2. As for your allegations that I am putting my own principles above the welfare of my own fellow Nagas, I wish to state that it is rather my fellow Naga leaders who have put this principles on me and I am just following their principles because they are honorable and worthy of my following. For example, our leader A.Z. Phizo was first offered to be the Chief Minister of the then un-fragmented Assam under which Naga hills was just a mere District. But he refused the offer though he could have become the most powerful man of India in what is now called the whole of North east India. In his own words he said: “I refused because I love our Naga people more than anything else in the world.” He was next offered to become a Cabinet Minister of the Indian Parliament. This too he refused. He was next offered to become the Ambassador of India to Malaya. Even when this was refused by him, he was next offered a blank cheque by Shri Prakasa the then Minister of Natural resources and Scientific research. Prakasa offered Phizo saying: “Phizo whatever you want, we shall give you. Just make a list and give it to me. Money is not the question, we shall give you anything.” (For details, see “Reminiscences of Correspondences with A.Z. Phizo, by S.C. Jamir, p. 22). In my own small way, I too have been offered many things but have consistently refused these offers because I do not want to betray my own people and “wallow in the enemy’s gifts”.
3. As for your claim that I have agreed with you that “a free and sovereign Naga nation would just be a poor Naga nation…” I believe you have misunderstood me. We did talk about corruption in Nagaland and if I remember correctly, I told you that when I am talking about a free and independent Nagaland, I am not talking about a Utopian Nagaland where absolute justice will reign and there would be no corruption whatsoever. I remember saying that free or under India, there will always be corruption in fallen human societies anywhere in the world and that Nagaland will also not be an exception to this reality. As for our national wealth and assets, I know many things which I have not disclosed to you. By this, I mean our oil reserves, our mineral reserves, our precious stones including our Gold and diamonds and on top of these untapped wealth, the vast agriculture, horticulture, herbal and floral wealth etc that our nation possesses. In the light of all these assets, I for one am completely convinced that we do not need even one Paisa from India for our economic survival.
Lastly, for your information, Niketu Iralu and Easterine Kire whom you have mentioned in your article are my uncle and wife. Niketu is my father’s third brother and Easterine and I are temporarily estranged because of the political conflict in our land.
