Imphal, July 14: While reminding the Naga public that acts of arson and consequent sufferings that befall upon the people are due to misadventures perpetrated at the behest of NSCN (IM)'s Th Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu, the Nagaland Youth President of Naga National Council Chongbui Newmai alleged that the recent incident of burning down schools in some hill districts of Manipur are the handiwork of the IM leaderships.

The renegade leaders Th Muivah and Isak Swu burned down hundreds of houses and granaries in eastern Nagaland in 1980s apart from destroying 87 Kuki villages in the 1990s which were neither beneficial to themselves nor for the Naga Nation, said a statement issued by Chongbui to substantiate his allegation of the latest violent acts of raging down the school buildings as a fallout of Muivah-Swu ploy to cover up their failure in reaching with an agreement in the peace parleys.

With their past policy of reliance on violence bearing no positive results, Muivah and Isak returned home with no hope for their cadres other than carry out the devilish work of burning down more than ten school buildings in southern part of Nagaland to make the students suffer the toil, opined the statement while adding that such acts would lead to nowhere other than put careers of the aspiring students at peril.

No Naga will say that to kill their own people and to make their own people suffer is serving for the Naga Nation, it said and construed the recent acts of demolishing school buildings as acts of terrorism with criminal intent.

Further alleging that the IM group is being manipulated by the Government of India for destroying Nagaland with the top IM duo merely representing their respective tribes/communities and no concern for the Naga cause, Chongbui asserted that for the Nagas sustained aggression against india is the only way to regain sovereignty.

Recalling that issues such as integration, special federal relationship with India, demanding special provisions under the indian Constitution, affiliation etc are being pursued by the IM group, the NNC dismissed such demands as non-issue and irrelevant to the Nagas' overall aspiration.

"yet for these non-issues IM group is fighting against the Nagas, killing thousands of innocent Nagas including important national leaders, burning down villages and schools in the past 27 years there entailing innumerable suffering to the Naga population," the president contended while prevailing upon the Nagas to thwart all such devilish designs conceived and carried out by the IM group by any means.

Referring to the former Nagaland Chief Minister SC Jamir's book entitled 'Bedrock of Naga Society' whose contents are manifest with opposition to sovereign existence of Nagaland and which drew flak from various circles of the Naga society, Chongbui further noted a comment of SC Jamir who reportedly quipped 'I do not see any reason why Nagas cannot be sovereign within the Indian Union' prior to a friendly football match between clubs of Tangkhul and Ao tribes at Delhi University on July 12. Reacting to the said comments with a poser 'what is the reason the Nagas cannot be sovereign outside the Indian Union ?', the NNC statement assumed Jamir's and Govt of India's concern to Naga independence might be on strategic ground due to close affinity of the region with China and Myanmar.

Driving home the point that Nagas need sovereignty for the simple reason that without political sovereignty expecting growth on the economic and human resource fronts would be a far fetched dream, Chongbui further explained that independence of the Nagas is inevitable to safeguard its national identity as well.

Moreover, Nagas do not perceive any reason for giving up cherished goal of independence merely for the sake of India's economic progress and national defence strategy, it reiterated while affirming that Nagas are today mature enough to be misled by either SC Jamir's exhorting speech or the IM group's cover up tactics.

Comment