In Nagaland, a tribal council inches closer, but may now face Manipur bump

The demand for a ‘Frontier Nagaland’, comprising the six districts of Mon, Tuensang, Longleng, Kiphire, Shamator and Noklak, has existed for decades. Its proponents see it as the only way to meet the dire developmental needs of the backward region, as well as to empower the state’s less dominant tribes.

The demand has traditionally cut across party lines, with legislators belonging to the six tribes lending their support to it irrespective of political allegiances, and raising it in the Nagaland Assembly from time to time.

Over the years, the organisation spearheading the movement for Frontier Nagaland – Eastern Nagaland Public Organisation (ENPO) – has diluted the demand from a separate state, to a separate administration. That seemed a more doable proposition, with several such tribal councils enjoying different degrees of autonomy across the Northeast.

In the talks with Shah, another breakthrough was made, to involve the Nagaland government in the talks going forward. However, given that in Manipur, the tribal side now sees a separate state as the only way to end the violence – rather than a separate council – officials apprehend a spillover effect in Nagaland.

There are a total 16 tribes in Nagaland, of which four are dominant. The Aaos, considered the most advanced among them, control 70 per cent of the government jobs and the service sector, followed by the wealthy Lothas, Semas and Angamis. The Angami tribe currently dominates Naga politics as well, with key political leaders, including CM Rio, belonging to it.

The demand for a ‘Frontier Nagaland’, comprising the six districts of Mon, Tuensang, Longleng, Kiphire, Shamator and Noklak, has existed for decades.

The ENPO region, in contrast, is dominated by the Konyak, Phom, Chang, Khemyongan, Yinchunger and Sanytam tribes – which are all socially and economically backward.

Historically, the eastern districts of Nagaland never came under British rule, and hence did not come to be classified as ‘Naga Hills’ under the larger Assam province. This also meant that over the years, while the Naga Hills saw some amount of development, the eastern Nagaland region fell “a hundred years behind the Naga Hills” – as described by the ENPO.

In 1963, when Nagaland became a state, special status was granted to the eastern region in the form of a Tuensang Autonomous Council, with a senior minister placed in charge of ‘Tuensang Affairs’. This arrangement continued for a decade.

In 1974, delimitation led to 20 Assembly seats coming under Tuensang, to meet its need for “more attention”. As part of the arrangement, an MLA in the six districts of Eastern Nagaland, gets Rs 1.5 crore for developmental works, compared to Rs 50 lakh for other MLAs in the state.

In 2003, the Rio government also set up a Department for Underdeveloped Areas or DUDA, with special focus on eastern Nagaland.

The ENPO argues that all this remains on paper, with the more powerful Naga tribes continuing to control the finances and jobs in Nagaland.

In 2010, the ENPO first submitted a representation to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a separate state. The government referred the matter to the state government, and it found instant opposition from leaders who have their base in Eastern Nagaland. Subsequently, Rio, who was the CM then too, held a high-level meeting requesting the ENPO to withdraw its demand.

In June 2012, the ENPO made another representation, this time to then Home Minister P Chidambaram, who categorically turned down the demand for a separate state despite growing protests for the same, saying that it was a regional issue and an internal matter of the state. Sources at the time said that the Centre told the state government to speed up developmental work in the six districts the ENPO was concerned about, ensuring adequate hospitals, roads and educational institutes, and possibly a separate financial package.

In recent years, with the Northeast seeing relative peace among its many disparate groups, the ENPO softened its stand, accepting a separate territorial council proposed by the Indian government as a solution.

Under the Modi administration, further progress has been made in the negotiations, say Naga leaders, with the first phase completed ahead of the recent meeting with Shah. Now, Shah has assured the state government of involvement in the further negotiations that will happen, including the drawing up of a road map for a new territorial council, as well as streamlining of finances for Eastern Nagaland.

This will assuage a significant concern of the Rio government. “For 12 years the Nagaland state government has been kept in the dark. If something is taking place within the state, then the Nagaland government must be involved,’’ Nagaland minister and NDPP spokesperson K G Kenye says.

However, there is concern now on both sides of the progress taking a hit due to the imbroglio in Manipur. As ethnic clashes between the Kuki-Zomi tribes and the dominant Meitei community continue in Manipur, government negotiations with the Kuki-Zomi insurgent groups, commonly known as SoO (suspension of operation groups), have slowed down. Moreover, there is hardening of stance, with many Kuki-Zomi leaders now talking of a separate state as the only way out given the bad blood with the Meiteis.

Naga leaders maintain that the situation in Manipur has “nothing to do with Nagaland’’, and that the community equations in Manipur are far more complex. They cite the Nagas’ “unique history”, a favourite catchphrase of NSCN (I-M) chief Th Muivah, and point to the state’s special status.

But the question is whether the Indian government can at all provide a separate administration in the nature of a territorial council to Eastern Nagaland, without conceding the same demand of the Kuki-Zomis in Manipur?