Hit back without actually hitting : NPF's novel approach
- Sangai Express Editorial :: June 22, 2013 -

Killing two birds with one stone. Firing salvos yet at the same time taking care not to sever the ‘umbilical cord’. This is what the Manipur unit of the Naga People’s Front has sought to do in a single media statement.

Political maturity or lobbing a mischievous ball into the courtyard of the State unit of the Congress, but it is undeniable that the verbal confrontation between Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam and the NPF which is headquartered at Nagaland, has suddenly become rather interesting.

Naga integration and Manipur’s territorial integrity are the core issues, but the art of throwing political darts has been taken to a new level. In trumping the ‘integrity’ card, it was not unexpected for Gaikhangam to lampoon all the Opposition parties for trying to sup with the NPF, whose agenda of bringing all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit is well known.

While the other Opposition parties, chiefly the MPP and the BJP, seemed to have been pushed to the corner by the wit and sarcasm of the Deputy Chief Minister, the NPF chose to hit back in a style, which has novelty written all over it.

Hit back, ‘expose’ him, yet at the same time project Gaikhangam as a Naga leader, who identifies himself with the ultimate aspirations of the Naga people.

Clever is the word that comes to mind here and the NPF certainly appeared to have done its homework well before issuing the statement to the media on June 20.

The ace, at least in the estimation of the NPF, is the signature of Gaikhangam in the memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister of India on May 27, 2005, which asked for the integration of all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit.

This however cannot be the final say, for politics rests on the dictum of ‘no permanent friends and no permanent enemies’ and Gaikhangam can always take recourse to this and blunt the assertion of the NPF.

Apply the same yardstick to the NPF and it may not be surprising if any of its present members once stood by the territorial integrity of Manipur. In other words, the same ball that has been lobbed at Gaikhangam may be lobbed back at some members of the NPF.

The NPF did not stop with Gaikhangam but went further, in fact went way back to 1972, when the United Naga Integration Council headed by Rishang Keishing merged with the Congress, with the understanding that the demand to integrate all Naga inhabited areas is legal, Constitutional and in National interest.

‘It is this that we are following,’ is the message of the NPF. Fast forward to 2013, and the grand old man of Manipur politics seems to have turned his back on the Naga integration question.

Yet another strategy of the NPF to hit back at senior Keishing, under the cover of stating that they are his followers !

Flip the argument of the NPF and it can also be equally said that protecting the territorial integrity of Manipur is legal, Constitutional and in National interest.

This is the bone of contention and while this commentary is strictly not about the ‘Naga integration versus Manipur’s integrity’ silence cannot be maintained over this core issue, whenever there is any deliberation involving the NPF.

Whether the points raised by the NPF will have any deep or tangible impact on the Congress or Messrs Rishang Keishing and Gaikhangam is a matter of speculation, but what cannot be overlooked is the fact that in one single statement, the NPF has managed to outdo the other Opposition parties.

This is what will make the election in the Outer Parliamentary Constituency sometime next year all that more interesting.

By all accounts, it seems that the NPF has more muscle to take on the Congress than the other political parties and this is extremely significant.