ANSAM states stand on 'new' Naga bodies
Source: Chronicle News Service / NNN
Senapati, January 31 2024:
All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM) has taken 'serious' consideration about the mushrooming of various organisations floated in the nomenclature of 'Manipur Naga', such as Manipur Naga Youth Organization (MNYO) and others in recent times, purportedly portraying as the organisations representing the entire Nagas in Manipur state.
"As such, ANSAM, representing as the apex body of Naga students and youth in Manipur, feels the necessity to issue this press statement once and for all to clarify and inform all the concerned that any organisation so formed using the name of Manipur Naga does not represent the mandate and opinion of Naga people living in the state of Manipur other than the age old established organisations such as United Naga Council (UNC), Naga Women Union (NWU) and ANSAM," the student body said in a statement issued Wednesday night.
While appreciating the "Naga individuals and groups" who have utmost concerns and shoulder burdens for the well-being of the community, ANSAM reminded everyone that Nagas have their own due process of forming organisations or a common platform, wherein the strength and mandate derive from the grassroots-villages to ranges, ranges to tribes and tribes to an apex common platform "which is pyramidal in nature" .
As such, any likeminded group cannot represent the mandate of the community in any form and should refrain from poking hands on the issues pertaining to a common concern that can cause serious political implications to the community at large at this crucial juncture, it remarked.
ANSAM also stated that it is high time for the Nagas to restrain and work collectively for a common good in tune with aforementioned Naga apex bodies and not otherwise.
Therefore, it cautioned all its constituent units and sub-ordinate bodies, all the authorities concerned and the Naga general public, to be mindful about the unabated mushrooming of organisations and do initiate necessary steps for containing the same in order to avoid serious ramification and jeopardising "our own position in the future".
"Let us fasten our position and should not give any room for confusion and fragmentation," it asserted.