The greater Naga problem

Lhouvitsu, a longtime NNC member and now Speaker of the Tatar Hoho the FGN8217;s national parliament, says nothing short of total sovereignty will be acceptable to the Naga people. The NNC was pushed to the background in the Eighties with the emergence of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim Isak-Muivah 8212; a breakaway faction headed by former NNC top brass Thuingaleng Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu.

8216;8216;NNC is the alpha and the omega of the Nagas. Muivah doesn8217;t represent the Nagas. The NSCN I-M has gone astray. They are renegades, and their so-called peace talks with the Government of India is coming to a quick end. Any solution reached by them will not be acceptable to the Nagas,8217;8217; says Lhouvitsu, 60.

Admitting that they have no role in the ongoing dialogue between the Centre and the NSCN I-M, Lhouvitsu adds that the NNC is looking at ways to return to its former glory. 8216;8216;There have been so many peace talks. Down the years, Naga leaders have met with Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi among others. A plebiscite was conducted by the NNC in 1951, which saw 99.9 per cent of Nagas vote for Independence.8217;8217;

The emergence of factions in Nagaland, mainly the NSCN I-M and the NSCN Khaplang, has led to Naga killing Naga in years of infighting and power struggle, he adds. 8216;8216;Muivah is not the Naga nation.8217;8217;

WHILE expressing dismay at the infighting, Naga Mothers8217; Association NMA president Khesheli Chishi 44, who was also a delegate at the 5th Naga Consultative Meeting held in Bangkok on September 6-7, says the NMA makes it their business to meet all factions and iron out their differences.

8216;8216;The NSCN I-M is spearheading the Naga movement and the peace talks now, but the cause is not the NSCN

I-M8217;s alone; it belongs to all Nagas. In that light, the Bangkok meeting was positive. What we ask is that the NSCN I-M maintain a good relationship with the public at all times,8217;8217; she added.

Naga Students8217; Federation NSF president Phushika Awomi says that 8216;8216;difference of opinion is bound to arise among brothers. They may fight, but in the end they are brothers.8217;8217; Krome says 8216;8216;the core issue is the same among all factions, but the leadership issue is a problem.8217;8217;

ON the other hand, the contentious issue of integration of all Naga-inhabited areas in the region, including parts of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh under one political system 8212; a long-standing demand of the NSCN I-M 8212; meets with different reactions. Dissent within the NSCN I-M on this demand came to the fore when the NSCN I-M-supported Government of People8217;s Republic of Nagaland8217;s MIP Kilonser Minister, A Z Jami, defected to rival faction NSCN K in May.

Jami, who had also served the faction as Kilo Kilonser deputy prime minister and executive secretary of the steering committee, is quoted in news reports giving differences with the NSCN I-M leadership over the territorial integration issue as the main reason for his defection.

According to him, territorial integration of Naga areas had assumed too much importance. 8216;8216;The point is that the sacrifice made by the people during the three quarters of the century is not for integration only.8217;8217; A senior academician in Kohima says the Nagas of Manipur, excepting the Tangkhul Nagas, are originally Kuki tribes who have been brought under the Naga banner.

8216;8216;Many living in Nagaland don8217;t recognise the Kukis as bona-fide Nagas,8217;8217; he says. Lhouvistsu is more blunt. 8216;8216;The NNC desires no other8217;s territory. It8217;s not difficult to say who is a bona-fide Naga: All Nagas live in Nagaland; those who live outside Nagaland are not Nagas,8217;8217; he says.