Acknowledging the stand of NTC : Not blindly accepting FA
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 05 2017 -

How successfully has the NSCN (IM) been in taking the people of Nagaland along with their agenda ?

This question may seem odd, even hollow in the face of the fact that ever since the NSCN came into being in 1980 and split into the Khaplang faction and Isak-Muivah faction in 1988, the outfit seems to have sold its idea to all the people it claims to represent.

This may best be seen in which the outfit entered into the ceasefire drill with the Government of India in 1997 and in the political parleys that have followed.

No doubt that the outfit has been able to influence the thinking of the Naga people to a great extent and this can be easily gauged from the manner in which a number of Naga civil society organisations, particularly in Manipur, have been toeing the line of the NSCN (IM).

The manner in which the United Naga Council stood against the decision of the State Government to create seven new districts and the 139 days economic blockade that followed is just a case in point.

Rewind back to 2010 when the Government of Manipur barred the proposed entry of NSCN (IM) leader Th Muivah to his native village at Somdal in Ukhrul district and how the State Government remained boycotted in Naga inhabited areas for seven long years, should underline the point that is sought to be made here.

The recent hostile reception that was laid out to former Chief Minister O Ibobi during his visit to Ukhrul to inaugurate power projects and the district hospital there, was seen along the line of “boycott the State Government.”

All indications that the influence of the NSCN (IM) on the Naga people is overwhelming indeed.

However this should not be taken to mean that all the Naga civil society organisations will accept everything that is laid out on the table.

The stand of the Nagaland Tribes Council is a case in point.

In questioning the wisdom of the Chief Minister of Nagaland for his utterance that the NPF unconditionally supports the Framework Agreement signed between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India on August 3, 2015, the NTC is questioning why the Government of Nagaland should blindly support a pact, of which no one seems to know the details.

This is not opposing the NSCN (IM) or the Framework Agreement, but underlining the point that all stakeholders should be taken into confidence.

And obviously the people of Nagaland do have the right to know what the Framework Agreement is all about.

This is perhaps the first time that a Naga civil society organisation has questioned the opaqueness of the Framework Agreement.

A line of thought which has echoed loudly in Manipur ever since the pact was signed two years back.

Seen along this line, it would be in the fitness of things for Manipur based Naga civil society organisations, like the UNC to question the contents of the Framework Agreement instead of blindly following it.

Or do they know something which has not been spelt out to the Nagas of Nagaland ?