Imkong Walling
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
The line is the introduction to the timeless ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens. Many must be familiar with this line which sets the tone of the novel’s narrative juxtaposing Paris and London during the French Revolution.
If one is to take the liberty, the sentence would somewhat relate to the Indo-Naga imbroglio.
There is hope and there is apprehension, there is a bloody past and a relatively calm present with chances of replicating the past. Two sides - if one is to take the NSCN (IM) and the Working Committee of the NNPGs as one Naga entity and the Government of India as the other - on the brink of a momentous resolution of a web of contentions that is as complex as complexity can get.
Wedged in the equation is a Naga civil society, separated by political stateliness and often veiled tribalistic positions, yet hesitant to take sides — either with the WC or the NSCN (IM), albeit, very much desiring an “amicable and acceptable” resolution.
In the midst of it all, came yet another and apparently assertive pronouncement in mid-August in the form of a 3-month timeframe, assumed to be October-November 2019, from none other than the GoI Interlocutor and Nagaland state Governor RN Ravi.
What appeared to be a ray of sunlight however assumed the shape of an electrical storm as the NSCN (IM) and the GoI clearly projected differing views on the interpretation of the "competencies" of the Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015.
On the other side of the parallel negotiations, the GoI and the WC appear to be on the same wavelength and the NSCN (IM) in a tight spot. Yet the latter, to its credit having paved the road for wholehearted negotiations, cannot afford to lose out.
Going either way implies only unrest and worse a bloodbath.
Then came the deafening war planes and unconfirmed reports of mass military deployment. The Indian Defence establishment has termed it a routine and planned drill of the Army and the IAF citing the strategic location or rather the vulnerability of the north-east region.
The memory of Jammu & Kashmir still fresh, this has done little to allay a pervasive fear of an imagined military domination.
The 3-month timeframe purportedly desired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stalemate over flag and constitution and the war planes conveniently coinciding have only fanned paranoia and of a GoI shrewdly unleashing psychological warfare over a small and outgunned adversary.
With a turbulent past of military atrocities, a wary and long victimized Naga public is worried and justified to feel so.
In light of the palpable insecurity, it would not be unwise to have an honest relook at the "competencies." The public has been given only fleeting glimpses by each of the negotiating parties in separate platforms and not jointly.
Whose version is correct or true to the contents of the FA?
Why not all the negotiating entities sit together in a public platform clearing the doubts of the civilian stakeholders for whom the struggle has been all about. The Naga populace once and for all deserve a life free from the proverbial 'devil and the sea.'
To quote an ordinary yet concerned Naga woman, "Wish there was some assuring words from someone, could be the CM or someone of high authority. But leaving us all in the dark is very unnerving."
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
