Naga political rights inviolable : NSCN-IM
Source: Chronicle News Service / Newmai News Network
Dimapur, May 26 2023:
NSCN-IM on Friday said that "Naga political rights upheld as sacrosanct is inviolable".
It also stated that any Naga political group seeking Naga political solu-tion under the terms of the Indian Constitution would be repeating the past mistakes and tantamount to violating the sanctity of "God given Naga political rights" .
In a statement, it mentioned that for the NSCN-IM, spearhead-ing the Naga political movement, the signing of 1997 Indo-Naga Ceasefire and the starting of political talks as invited by the Government of India had huge political implications.
It was meant to make redun-dant the past political decisions and do away with factors extra-neous to the Indo-Naga political issue, it further said.
Thus, Article 371(A) as inserted into the Part XXI of the Indian Constitution in the year 1962 or 16 Point Agreement of 1960, no longer bears any political meaning as the historic Framework Agree-ment signed between the Nagas as represented by NSCN-IM and Government of India on August 3, 2015 has come into existence to nullify all the past acts of in-justice to the Nagas and bring new solution/agreement that is honourable and acceptable, the NSCN-IM also stated.
Stressing that the FA was not signed in clandestine manner, NSCN-IM further conveyed that it took as many as 13 years of tough negotiations after Government of India granted official recognition to the uniqueness of Naga history and situation in 2002.NSCN-IM continued that the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi was so much carried away by such political achievement that he made the arrangement to make the world bear living witness to the signing of the FA as the high profile signing ceremony was live telecast worldwide.
"Going further, he called up all top political leaders of different political parties to share with them that he has solved the lon-gest insurgency issue in Southeast Asia.
But the irony is that PM Modi is still not around to implement his brainchild FA even after more than seven years," the NSCN-IM also said.
"Naturally, it was a tough going for NSCN-IM.
But when the going gets tough, the tough gets going," it asserted.
According to the NSCN-IM, in response to the unpredict-able situation as reflected by the attitude of the Government of India, indulging in delaying tactics under one pretext or the other, without any demonstrative commitment to implement what has been agreed upon at highest level, it called for Naga National Assembly on May 31, 2022 where-in a resolute stand was taken that it will never deviate from the Naga national principle at any cost and uphold and protect the unique history.
"This implies that under no circumstances the core issues of Naga National Flag and Consti-tution (Yehzabo) that symbolises the Naga National identity will be compromised in the name of Naga political solution." "Significantly, the letter and spirit of the FA is very sharp and clear," NSCN-IM said.
According to the NSCN-IM, the FA says, The Government of India recognises the unique his-tory and position of the Nagas." By unique history, it means-the Nagas have the history of independence.
The Nagas have neither been a part of the Union of India nor that of Burma (Myan-mar), nor any other powers by consent or by conquest.
Flag and constitution are constituent parts of sovereignty.
There is no am-biguity about it, the NSCN-IM further maintained.