The Nagaland Congress and its fore-runner the Nagaland Nationalist Organisation (NNO) consistently followed the principles and policies of peace, unity and reconciliation to find a political settlement, acceptable to all concerned: Much has been written for and against the signing of 16- point Agreement with the Government of India by the representatives of the Naga People’s Delegation in 1960 and the Nagaland Nationalist Organisation (NNO) party and the Indian National Congress Party in Nagaland on the Naga Political Issue.
It is a fact that the Nagaland State was born out of the political movement. We must also know the genesis of how Nagaland State came into being and how we are today, because of the political movement, disturbances erupted on a large scale in the year 1956.
The interior parts of the Naga Hills witnessed large scale kidnapping, killings, destruction of granaries, burning and grouping of villages inflicting hunger, sickness, epidemics, miseries, tortures, and untold sufferings of innocent people. Seeing these situations, when the situation improved in the month of April, 1957, some of the Naga leaders, who had deep concern for the Naga people took initiatives and organized a preliminary meeting to salvage the Naga people with easily available tribes representatives and was held at the Western House Kohima on the 27th of July 1957. At the meeting, the following resolutions were passed, “Whereas the present situation in Naga country demands a change in the interest of all concerned, and whereas, it is essential to establish complete mutual understanding and unanimity amongst the Naga people as a whole, for that purpose we, the signatories below, at the request of the Naga public hereby issue this appeal, notice to all Nagas for the general meeting to be held at Kohima on and from 22nd August, 1957”.
In the meeting some concrete suggestions for a political settlement for the long drawn Naga problem through peaceful negotiation with the Government were discussed. Hence, all the Naga tribes were earnestly requested to choose their own representatives and send them to this conference to represent the views of their tribes with their respective resolutions in the matter of settling the Naga problem.
On the 22nd of August 1957 the Naga People’s Convention was held and the name “Naga People’s Convention” was coined. Dr. Imkongliba Ao was elected the President and J.B. Jasokie was elected as Secretary of the Convention. There the main discussion centred round the first resolution where it was resolved that the only answer to the Naga problem was satisfactory political settlement, but the words ‘within Indian Union’ was not added to it. Some members were against this, therefore, this was put to vote and an additional resolution was passed clarifying the first resolution to say that in view of the message of the Governor of Assam conveyed to the President of the Convention, the following clarification had been made in order to avoid any possible misinterpretation and as such the delegates were empowered to say that the ‘satisfactory political settlement’ mentioned in the first resolution meant a satisfactory political settlement within Indian Union. Another resolution was passed which said “If the Government expresses inability to take up the question of re-transfer of forests immediately, the delegates are empowered to agree to the immediate constitution of a separate administrative unit under the Central Government comprising the Naga Hills District of Assam and the Tuensang Frontier Division of NEFA without prejudice to our claim for the forests which will be again agitated at the time of entering into negotiation for a political settlement”. This supplementary resolution was passed in view of the extreme urgency of a change in the Administrative set up.
The first convention was followed by negotiation between the delegates and the Governor of Assam, Sayed Fazi Ali at Shillong and thereafter with Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in New Delhi. On the 25th of September, 1957, the delegates met the Prime Minister who in turn accepted the proposal on behalf of the Government of India. The delegates also requested the Prime Minister that amnesty should be declared and the practices of grouping all the villages should be stopped. The Prime Minister agreed to accept the request for amnesty in respect of past offence but it would not apply to offences committed thereafter. The delegates met the Prime Minister again on the 26th of September, 1957, and impressed on the Prime Minister that separate administrative unit was only an interim measure.
On the 1st of December, 1957, a separate administrative unit was formed combining the Naga Hills District of Assam and the Tuensang Frontier Division of NEFA. In short, it was called- Naga Hills –Tuensang Area (NHTA). The third session of the Naga People’s Convention was held at Mokokchung from the 22nd June, 1959 onwards. After full deliberations on various recommendations of the Committee to form the basis of negotiation with Government of India for the settlement of the Naga political problem, the Sixteen Points Resolution was adopted.
On the 26th of July 1960 the delegates met the Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister after going through the 16-Point Memorandum enquired whether we could replace ‘Nagaland’ with a suitable and purely Naga word. The leaders of the delegation had no suitable word to replace “Nagaland” so it remained “Nagaland”. Coming to the Legislature, the Prime Minister suggested tribal names for the Assembly.
Coming to the twelfth point with regard to the transfer of reserved forests, “The Naga delegation discussed the question of the inclusion of the Reserved Forests and contiguous areas inhabited by the Nagas.
They were referred to the provisions in Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution, prescribing the procedure for the transfer of areas from one State to another. The Prime Minister had no objection to the other points. As agreed upon, a Transitional Period of 3 years was ushered in. An elected interim Body was constituted to function during the transitional period. On the 1st of December, 1963, the President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan inaugurated Nagaland as the 16th State.
For the first time in history of the Nagas, after having meetings in their respective tribes, their representatives were sent to attend in the first Naga People’s Convention held at Kohima on the 22nd August, 1957. Never before in the history of the Nagas such a meeting represented by all the tribes of Nagaland was held. Without the Naga People’s Convention, ‘the present Eastern Nagaland are (ENPO) would have remained under the North East Frontier Agency(NEFA) now Arunachal Pradesh and the erstwhile Naga Hills District of Assam would have remained a District under Assam’. By creation of separate Statehood of Nagaland, as a result of 16-point Agreement, people have been benefitted in large measures.
Today, instead of criticizing for signing of the 16-Point Agreement and those leaders, rather we should be grateful to them for their wisdom and the far-sightedness.
The Nagaland Nationalist Organisation is the offspring of the Naga Peoples’ Convention and is thus fully aware of the 16-Point Agreement. After the 1st General Election in 1964, most immediate and supreme task for the NNO Party and its Government was to put an end to hostilities and uncertainties by creating understanding and goodwill among the people, and to restore normal condition in the State. At once, the NNO party and the State Government took to the plough and started preparing the ground. In the meanwhile, God gave a vision to the Baptist church leaders to form a Peace Mission in the Third Baptist Church Convention at Wokha in 1964. The proposal to form a Peace Mission was approved by the NNO in Dimapur Session in February, 1964. The NNO Government after careful consideration, agreed to the proposal and introduced a Government Resolution in the Nagaland Assembly which was passed unanimously on 13th of March, 1964. The operative portion of the Resolution is:
“That efforts be made to open every possible avenue to negotiate for such a talk, giving full opportunities to all sections of the public of Nagaland in mobilizing public opinion to prepare the spade work to make the proposed talk a success with the sole object of restoration of lasting peace in Nagaland. That the underground people be urged to consider this matter of peace talks seriously and respond readily to the call of the people to put all their efforts to create healthy atmosphere and necessary conditions for the peace talk”.
The Peace Mission as well as the Church leaders worked hard to effect a stoppage of operations. An agreement was signed for cessation of hostilities on 25th May, 1964 and a period of stoppage of operation was effected from 6th September, 1964.
The NNO party and the State Government having pledged to bring peace and political settlement, declared that they will not stand on the way, and allowed the underground leaders to have direct talks with the Prime Minister. This is the reason why the underground leaders could hold six rounds of peace talks with the Prime Minister.
When the underground leaders wanted to send two of their emissaries to London to meet A.Z. Phizo, the NNO Government gave the clearance and financial assistance to them.
Besides the two emissaries, all those who wanted to meet Phizo were allowed to do so. All these generous gestures amply prove that the NNO party and its Government was anxious to help solve the Naga political problem in a peaceful way. Immediately after the deadlock a sharp division arose among the underground leadership which brought great confusion and uncertainties threatening peace and making the chances of a settlement difficult.
The Church leaders called for a Conference of All-Naga Leaders at Kohima village on the 5th of December 1967 with a view to renewing the peace talk; but the underground leaders boycotted this important meeting for the reasons best known to them.
Over ground and Underground Naga Leaders Conference: Three meetings were held in Kohima on the 5th of August 1969, 28th August 1969 and 25th September 1969 with a view to bringing leaders of various shades of opinion in Nagaland to discuss the question of settlement. Fifty nine leaders came and participated in the deliberations but the Federal group of undergrounds and the United Front of over ground did not attend. A Resolution was unanimously passed in the meeting, which reads as follows:-
“That with a view to bringing about an early peaceful and final political settlement and lasting peace throughout Nagaland, a joint meeting of the underground and over ground Naga leaders be convened on 25th September, 1969 at Kohima and that this meeting urges upon all the underground leaders to participate in that meeting”.
In its Seventh General Session held at Pfutsero from 30th to 31st January, 1970, the Nagaland Nationalist Organization reiterated that the Naga problem is essentially a political one; that the underground Nagas are an inalienable part of Naga society, and that they should have a say in final settlement of the Naga problem.
Being conscious of the fact that delay in settling the political problem will bring more hardships and sufferings to the Naga people, the NNO and the State Government continued to strive with renewed efforts to solve the vexed problem. The Church leaders, through the Nagaland Peace Council and the Liaison Committee took the initiative and brought the underground leadership and the Governor, as the representative of the Government of India, to the conference table where both the parties signed the SHILLONG ACCORD on the 11th of November 1975, ‘The representative of the underground organization conveyed their decision of their own volition, to accept without condition, the Constitution of India’.
It was only after the 11th of November 1975 that the desks were cleared and that the underground leader, on their own volition accepted the Constitution of India unconditionally and deposited their arms in the Chedema camp by 12th February 1976.
The NNO leadership also took the next step of merging with the Indian National Congress Party, and the Nagaland Nationalist Organisation (NNO) merged with the Indian National Congress on the 19th June, 1976. The NNO party and later the Nagaland Congress have declared more than once that we welcome “ Shillong Accord” and release of prisoners out of this Accord and credit for this is due only to Governor of Nagaland State, Central Leaders and the leaders of Underground Nagas.
The Nagaland Nationalist Organisation in its 1969 Election Manifesto stated that the NNO has continuously striven for the unity of the Naga tribes, for the return of peace to our strife-torn land for the creation of the right climate for the Naga people’s advancement.
NNO party believes that the Naga problems can be solved by the Nagas themselves. After all, it is nobody else’s but our own concern and it is we who suffer the consequences of our folly or enjoy outcome of our wise actions.
The Nagaland Nationalist Organisation has consistently followed the principles and policies that attempts should be made to establish contacts with all shades of public opinion both in the over ground and underground without any discrimination or being pitted against one another, to arrive at a satisfactory political settlement.
In February 1993, Election Manifesto the Congress recognizes that the underground problem is political needing political approach punctuated by love, sympathy and understanding. It also recognizes that any meaningful dialogue with the Government of India would be fruitful when the issue is presented with one voice. The party therefore shall mobilize all possible and constructive forces to bring unity and mutual understanding among different groups of the underground set up.
The party is sanguine that all the Nagas belonging to one family and having brotherly feelings for one another, a compassionate approach would unit them at one forum and resolve their differences with a spirit of give and take.
This issue shall be listed in our party agenda having top priority. The Indian National Congress being a National Party will serve as a bridge between the Central Government and the underground and shall render all possible assistance to bring the two parties to a negotiating table. On the 19th of May 1991 at the Congress Election Rally at Dimapur public ground, Rajiv Gandhi announced that there will be talk without pre-condition if Congress is voted to power.
On the 5th of February 1993 at the Congress Election Rally at Dimapur Stadium, P.V Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister, announced that the Naga problem is a political problem.
Taking the commitment made by Rajiv Gandhi and by him on the 5th of February 1993, he met NSCN (IM) leaders, resulting in the present day ceasefires and negotiations.
It is an absolute mendacity for anyone to say that the Congress party and its fore-runner the NNO party are opposed to Naga National issue.
Chingwang Konyak, Former President Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee
