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Journalism of Courage
WELCOME home, you carry the spirit of the Nagas,’’ read the message on a banner. It was only one among the fluttering many that greeted Issak Chisi Swu, chairman, and Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland — NSCN(IM) at Dimapur airport on December 14. The two came after spending a week in Delhi, meeting prime minister Manmohan Singh and others in their search for an ‘‘honourable’’ solution to the decades-old Naga problem.
Later, a 5000-strong crowd attended the public reception organised for the two leaders, holding posters with hopes of peace. ‘We expect an amicable solution soon.’ ‘We thank the government of India for recognising the unique history of the Nagas’. One poster even had a photograph showing Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil draped in a typical Naga shawl, flanked by Muivah and Issak.
THIS homecoming was nothing like the Naga leaders’ earlier visits to the state. Their trips in 1993 and 1996 were clandestine — the NSCN(IM) was banned then and security forces referred to it as ‘‘the mother of all insurgencies in the Northeast’’.
In 1999, two years after having signed a ceasefire agreement with the government of India, they came to Nagaland ‘‘under special arrangement’’. They were allowed to sneak in from Myanmar with the government agreeing not to disturb them.
But this time round it’s all official. They are here for a month, on Indian passports and with government security. ‘‘We have come at the invitation of the prime minister of India,’’ says Muivah, the more flamboyant of the two.
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When the NSCN (IM) leaders came last in 1999, it was a hushed affair. This time it’s all official. They are here on Indian passports and with government security |
Muivah and Issak may have kept quiet on their talks with the government, but they were eloquent in their address to fellow Nagas. Stand up as one nation and become realistic, they exhorted.
NOT many in Nagaland, however, are willing to read too much into the visit. M. Vero, chairman of Naga Hoho, the apex body of all Naga tribes, says, ‘‘Civil society has to play a very crucial role. This is also the time to influence the society to understand the reality.’’
Be realistic, appears to be the buzzword. During their address, both Muivah and Issak didn’t mention sovereignty even once.Says Along Longkumer, a leading commentator on Naga issues, ‘‘Sovereignty has become redundant in this age of globalisation and interdependence … It should be taken as a multi-layered and dynamic format, combining function and symbolism to promote political goals and self-determination, while recognising the necessity of interdependence with India on broader issues.’’
Newspapers in the state displayed similar sentiments. ‘‘Nagas cannot afford to dwell in the past. Neither should they even remotely think that they can move to a hopeful future if they continue to live in the current state of intolerance, hatred and suspicion,’’ wrote the Nagaland Post.
IF the Naga leaders visit pointed to anything, it was the need for the Nagas to present a united front. At present, the Naga movement is split into as many as three groups, the NSCN(IM), NSCN(K) and the NNC—the last one for several decades had the legendary late Angami Zapo Phizo as its fourth and most illustrious president.
The Naga movement, in fact, has come a long way since the Naga Club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929 seeking a sovereign status once the British left India. Later, on August 14, 1947, the NNC declared ‘‘independence’’, while Phizo declared a full-scale war in 1951 seeking independence.
While the NNC first split in 1980, five years after the Shillong Accord, with Muivah and S S Khaplang walking out to constitute the NSCN, the two parted ways in 1988 to split it further. Since then both sides have claimed to be the real representative of the Nagas, often engaging in bloody clashes.Better relations between the two, perhaps could be first step out of the maze that is the Naga problem.
