(From previous issue)
Had the Naga People’s Convention and agents of the Government of India not hijacked the process of the National political movement from Phizo and the Naga National Council by those educated and well placed bureaucrats at the behest of the Indian agencies it would have been a totally different story. The NPC which was purportedly a go-between to facilitate understanding between Government of India and the Naga Nationalists became the negotiator for the premeditated statehood of Nagaland, which accepts Indian citizenship, thereby creating deep divisions within the Naga people, as manifested in the finger pointing article of T. Solo.
The Government of India exposed itself much later when they stated that there is no issue outstanding with Nagaland State and that it is the NAGA ISSUE that remains to be addressed. In the light of the same, it is clear that the Naga Political movement would have ended with the creation of Nagaland State in 1963 had the plan and scheme of the GOI of India through the NPC , worked and succeeded at that time.
Mr T. Solo seems to have no knowledge of the situation of Nagas in Manipur. It is incorrect that there were four Naga CMs who stood against Naga integration It has even been recently clarified by Z. Lohe too, that it was late Reishang Keishing, former Chief Minister of Manipur who stood against Naga integration and the same had been wrongly attributed to Yangmaso Shaiza, the only other Naga Chief Minister of Manipur. In a house of 60, with only 10 MLAs, that too in different Political parties, no Naga can become the Chief Minister unless he enjoys the support of majority of 40 Meitei MLAs and 10 non- Naga tribal MLAs. It was just mathematics of state electoral politics that made Reishang and Yangmaso Chief Ministers of Manipur. If at all, they may be blamed individually but not the entire Nagas in Manipur. Memoranda have been submitted demanding for Naga integration as per the wish of the people by Naga legislators to the Govt of India, where it mattered in the given realities.
While we do not want to justify the position of Naga legislators and the role they played in the Manipur Assembly vis-a-vis the issue of Naga Integration, we desire to put on record that Nagas in Manipur have indelibly asserted the rights of the Naga people to be under one political umbrella and for which the following facts are highlighted in brief –
i) Nagas in Manipur, under the Naga National League took up boycott of preparation of electoral rolls in Naga areas in Manipur and the “No House Tax Campaign” in 1948 to demand for merger with the then Naga Hills district of Assam The movement was forcibly suppressed resulting in death of 3 volunteers and wounding of many.
ii) Nagas in Manipur participated in the 1951 plebiscite which gave the Naga position on Independence.
iii) Realizing the futility of non-violent movement, Nagas in Manipur under the banner of the Manipur Naga Council eventually merged with the NNC in 1957. Even before the merger, the Naga areas in Manipur were already engulfed in the flames of arm conflict.
iv) The Armed forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (Assam and Manipur) was promulgated in Naga areas in Manipur because of the Naga movement.
v) The 1964 Indo-Naga Cease-Fire covered the Naga areas in Manipur.
vi) The United Naga Integration Council movement of the 1970s was an organized expression of the Naga people’s desire to live together.
vii) Naga Civil Organisations in Manipur, who are not affiliated to any political party or creed, under the banner of the United Naga Council have persistently pursued for Naga integration. The memoranda, representations and statements, including those jointly made with the Naga Hoho stands on record as to the persistent position of the Nagas in Manipur on Naga integration.
viii) Nagas took up the movement for an alternative arrangement (a transitional status before integration) outside the Government of Manipur pending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue. There were 7 rounds of tripartite talk of the Nagas in Manipur under the aegis of the United Naga Council and the Government of India and the Government of Manipur between 2011 and 2014 on this democratic demand. This process was put on hold as the Indo-Naga dialogue eventually gathered steam and progressed.
ix) Nagas in Manipur could have got a separate tribal state or separate administrative unit had it not been in deference to the greater political struggle of the Nagas without borders. We understand that a Pan Naga Hoho, which is a consolidation of the concept of Naga Hoho that has naturally evolved out of the Naga ethos is being considered in the impending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue. Based on the Unique History and situation of the Nagas, the negotiators will finally come to a mutual agreement that is fair, honourable and acceptable. Nagas are inherently democratic and the settlement of the Naga issue will restore intrinsic democracy in Naga homelands.
The last para of his article belies his fear that NSCN and Muivah and Tangkhuls will control Nagaland State instead of working for Naga integration. It is therefore T. Solo’s intention to make it difficult for the negotiators and the negotiation to go forward by propping up limiting sentiments and apprehensions. But, left to himself, T. Solo would end up bringing home only the rope without the cow as it were.
We wish that Nagas in Manipur are not called to clarify their position on the integration of Naga people, or their Naga identity questioned , time and again by writers such as T. Solo. We are all mortal but history in the making will record the truth for posterity. We respect his age, the accomplishment and status attained through a lifetime career as a bureaucrat. Nagas do not have many like him and who still possess sound faculty of the mind and wish to remember him this way and not through his tirades.
(Concluded)
L. Adani former president United Naga Council (UNC), K. S. Paul Leo former president UNC and Gaidon Kamei former president UNC