By Imkong Walling
There is one word that trails the Naga political issue like a shadow. Make a guess; it would not be hard to hit the bull’s eye. Yes, UNITY it is— a word on the lips of everybody, from state politicians, to tribal leaders; from Naga Political Groups to Indian government leaders, from prayer points to almost any commentary about the Naga struggle and its fragmented state.
The word has been so used, to the extent of being abused, that it has lost efficacy like a drug over time. Considering the disillusionment within, it seems that everytime the term is invoked the emotional rift in an already fragile Naga tribal fabric widens.
It started with an aspiration for reconciling two detached Naga Political Groups. Along came slogans like unity before solution, solution before election, and so on, only for more splintering to occur in the political movement. At one point, the NPF famously pulled out of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly’s Joint Legislators Forum on the Naga political issue to give it a go as ‘facilitator’ alone, only to be schooled on the concept of ‘practise what one preaches’ by one of the Naga Political Groups.
Contemporaneously, the tribal-social spectrum did not fare any better. Once wreaked by tribalism, it evolved to segment into blocs.
Amid the turmoil emerged two agreements— Framework Agreement and Agreed Position, while in another part, the call for an Eastern Nagaland state gained momentum.
The people reportedly still kept hope. There emerged a call, sounded by the Nagaland Gaon Bura Federation, for consolidating the two agreements signed separately with the Government of India into one vision document.
The new refrain sounded rational, and still does, taking shape in the form of a ‘Common platform’ composed of the Naga civil society organisations, irrespective of stateliness, with a stated objective to onboard and unify the various Naga Political Groups, either in political talks or not.
The first move in March 2025 was unsuccessful. The second bid, proclaimed as the Naga Common Platform, has been set to motion, scheduled to take place on November 18, next. According to them, the apex tribal bodies have failed to unite the Nagas.
It has however hit rough weather with the Nagaland Tribal Hohos Coordination Committee — minus one big eastern Nagaland bloc — deciding to abstain, terming it a parallel platform that risks derailing the reconciliatory efforts of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation.
All parties claim to have the same objective yet they fail to converge or cooperate, as their disobliging stances contradict their professed unifying efforts. It is a reflection of a society beset with a shared distrust concealed amidst a unity chorale.
Unity is the suture proclaimed to mend the schism within. Everyone’s trying to sell it. But who’s buying?
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
