The United Naga Council (UNC), which is a powerful Naga tribal body in Manipur, has pulled up eight Naga MLAs for being part of the 40-member delegation that visited New Delhi recently to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a statement on Sunday night, the UNC said it was “devastated” at the “untimely’’ move of the Naga legislators. The delegation of 40 MLAs from Manipur — the Assembly has 60 legislators — that submitted the representation to the PM through his staff at his official residence on August 9 cut across party and community lines and included Meitei, Muslim, and Naga MLAs. Sources said the delegation was a “show of strength” by the N Biren Singh government. In their representation, the legislators demanded complete disarmament, withdrawal of the Suspension of Operation agreement with Kuki groups, the implementation of a National Register of Citizens (NRC), strengthening of Autonomous District Council, and categorically said no separate administration for the Kuki-Zomi tribes should be considered. “The United Naga Council is devastated at the untimely move of the eight Naga legislators submitting representation to the Prime Minister of India along with 32 others simultaneously on the day of the Naga people’s rally organised in the Naga hill districts of Manipur, negating the collective sentiment of the Naga people,” the UNC said in its statement. It added, “Whilst the Nagas are all out reiterating for an inclusive, acceptable and honourable solution to the Indo-Naga political issue, submitting representation with some contradictory demands to the PM is highly uncalled for and therefore, the UNC as the apex body representing 20 Naga tribes of Manipur feels necessitated to place on record that the Naga legislators who have appended their signatures do not carry the collective aspiration and sentiments of the Nagas and hence disown their representation.” Sources in the UNC pointed out that four Naga MLAs from the Naga People’s Front, a party backed by the tribal body, had been pulled up. While the Nagas tribes and its leaders have largely stayed neutral and quiet in the past three months of ethnic violence between the Kuki-Zomi tribes and the dominant Meitei community, sources said the representation made to the PM brought the Naga community at odds with the Manipur state government. “There are two main issues for us. The first is that the representation says that a separate administration is not to be entertained under any circumstance, and the second point is that the autonomous district councils (ADCs) should be strengthened. Our very struggle is premised on the demand that Nagas should be given a separate administration and oppose the maintaining of Manipur’s territorial integrity. The Naga struggle is to unite Naga areas. Secondly, the MLAs have spoken of strengthening ADCs, which the Biren administration is seeking in lieu of more autonomy for tribals. This is also not acceptable to the Nagas,’’ said a Naga leader. On August 9, the day the representation was made, the UNC organised a mass rally in the Senapati, Ukhrul, and Tamenglong hill districts of Manipur that are dominated by the Naga tribes as well as in Chandel district, which has a mix of Naga and Kuki tribes, to raise the issue of Indo-Naga peace talks that have been underway for over two decades but has not been resolved despite the Modi government’s push to expedite the matter. “The purpose of the rally was to remind the Indian authorities that they cannot use the current situation in Manipur to sideline the Indo-Naga talks. We feel that the Indian government is belittling the Nagas by doing this. The framework agreement was initiated by PM Modi and signed in 2015 – it has been eight years and yet there is no resolution. We are of the shared opinion that the Indo-Naga issue is the crux of many of the conflicts, not only in Naga areas or Manipur, but in the entire Northeast, and resolving this issue will be a big step towards peace in the region,” UNC general secretary Vareiyo Shatsang told The Indian Express. Before the rally, the UNC issued a statement saying that it supports the Manipur government’s demand to implement NRC in the state. While the Naga tribes and their leaders have largely stayed quiet on the violence, sources in the UNC revealed that the historic dispute over land between the Kukis and the Nagas — Kukis claim many of the Naga inhabited areas as their own and vice versa — was the reason for demanding NRC. “There has been infiltration of the Kuki people from Myanmar for decades now, and not only has their population grown, but so has their area of habitation, much of which is on Naga lands. That is why we support the NRC. When the new districts were declared in 2016 — Pherzawl, Kanpokpi, which are Kuki-dominated districts, and even Noney and Kamjong which are Naga dominated — the UNC opposed the formation of these new districts, and we still don’t recognise them," said a UNC member. Sources in the UNC said Nagas would directly oppose the state government based on the representation to the PM.
