DIMAPUR, AUGUST 26 (MExN): The WC, NNPGS today stated that “90 years of unresolved British-Indo-Naga issue is more important than election.”
A press release from the medial cell of the WC, NNPGS recalled the nationalist spirit of the 2000 Naga Labour Corp members who returned from Europe after WWI and formed the Naga Club in 1918. It said that the signatories of the 1929 Memorandum to British Statutory Commission to Naga Hills and NNC stalwarts along with a host of other Naga nationalists “inspire us from their silent graves.”
It meanwhile accused the oppositionless Government in Nagaland of “creating so much friction within Naga tribes.” It said that the Government of India is being misinformed on matters on the ground. The overwhelming demand of the people for early solution is being ignored, it added. The WC, NNPGs stated that the narrative is being “shrewdly manipulated to electoral narrative from political solution.”
It claimed that Government of India representatives and the inner circle of Nagaland's elected representatives are “visibly saying one thing one day and doing the opposite the next day, playing havoc with the sentiment of the Naga people.”
The WC said that the four point resolution adopted by sixty MLAs on July 16, 2022 gave a “clear lucid signal to the GoI that the Naga tribes, state government, apex civil societies and common people were prepared for a political solution.”
“However, the resolution was not meant to officially reach the PMO or the office of the Home Minister of India. It was a mere exercise to fool the Naga people. On 26th July 2022, the NDPP and BJP betrayed the Naga people with a 40-20 pre-poll alliance,” it said.
Further, it pointed to the August 5 rally at Dimapur for early Indo-Naga solution. However, it claimed that “shockingly, some elected members pressurised their own tribal bodies to desist from attending the rally for Naga political solution.”
The WC, NNPGs accused the Chief Minister of trying to “keep the ninety year old British-Indo-Naga conflict in the backburner and wear a CM crown for another five years partnering the BJP.” It hoped that the Prime Minister “would not succumb to such temptations primarily because Nagas believe that it has been his personal mission to amicably and honourably solve the decades old Indo-Naga issue during his time.”
Claiming that “all entities concluded talks on 31st October 2019” the WC, NNPGs said that it took the apex tribal bodies into confidence and negotiated with the GOI. “There is no question of negotiating for Nagas of Nagaland alone. It is for propagandists to whine on. WC prays for them to wake up to reality,” it added.
The WC, NNPGs stated that sufficient political and administrative realignments for Nagas and their ancestral land in the state of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam is mutually agreed in principle. It informed that the committee “met the Ahoms, Meiteis and other communities creating a better understanding with Naga neighbours.”
“Pending integration of Naga areas, GoI will reserve appropriate space and position for the Naga flag, respecting and honouring the Naga political sentiment. For the Naga constitution, Naga tribes will endorse leaders with impeccable knowledge of ancient traditions, customs, usages with historical and social bearings to be incorporated with modern constitutional structures,” it further claimed.
It further pointed out that the “the NSCN (IM) too have said that the ball is in the court of the GoI.” Calling upon the GoI to to take a decision, the WC NNPGs said that “anti-solution elements hijacking Naga political solution for personal aggrandizement shall be solely responsible for any eventuality.”
It meanwhile questioned the Prime Minister that “if the GoI was not determined to solve the Naga issue, why was official invitation extended to Naga entities?” “He began the talks, he must conclude it. Why begin something if it cannot be concluded?” it added. It asserted that Naga people and their history “cannot be held hostage for cheap political gains for cheap selfish leaders.” It is time to settle Naga Political solution and not election, the WC, NNPGs made clear.
The WC, NNPGs stated that “if a negotiated solution is to be kept undeclared and prolonged, disrespecting and hurting the Naga people's sentiment, the aggrieved Nagas have every right to revert back to pre-independent India position and status of 1929 memo.”
“The right to self-determination is not an exclusive right of strong and powerful nations alone. Every struggling agrarian nation, big or small, posses its proud historical and political right to self-determine its own future in consonance with its distinct history and identity,” it stated.
