DIMAPUR, APRIL 1 (MExN): Nagas should work out with the Government of India a political framework which can protect the future of the Naga people, their distinct identity and economic well-being by way of some financial package, said SC Jamir, Governor of Goa this evening in what could have been his first important comment on the protracted Naga political problem after being appointed to the gubernatorial and apolitical post in July 2004.
He was interacting with a group of 29 students of the Political Science department from Patkai Christian College, Chumukedima who are on a study tour and who had called on him here this evening, according to a press communiqué issued by OSD to Governor of Goa.
Replying to a query as to how best Nagas should go about to solve the Naga political problem, Jamir said a political framework acceptable to all parties concerned and one which could safeguard the future of the Naga people, must be worked out by the negotiating parties in consultation with all sections of the Naga community.
Asked to comment on the viability of an “independent Nagaland”, Jamir said the world has changed tremendously in the last few decades and that necessities too have changed.
“The world is a globalised village now and no nation can afford to isolate itself from the rest of the world,” he said. This is a Century of Unions”, Jamir was quoted as saying.
He pointed out that in the present day context, economic sovereignty has eclipsed political sovereignty and exhorted the younger Naga generation to set their priorities right so that they can march ahead with the changed times.
On the request of the young students, the Goa Governor who himself is a signatory of the historic 16-point Agreement of 1960 which led to the creation of the State of Nagaland in 1963, recalled the momentous events leading to the first Naga People’s Convention in 1957.
“The situation in the mid 1950s was horrible for the Naga people whose villages were razed to the ground and who had to flee to the jungles and live like wild animals,” he reminisced.
He pointed out that on the basis of the 16-point Memorandum submitted by the NPC to the Government of India in 1959, the 16-point Agreement was signed in July 1960 which led to insertion of Article 371 (A) in the Indian Constitution which provides for protection of the land and its resources for the Naga people and also the social and religious practices of the people.
“It is through the 16-point Agreement that today we have a Government of our own to decide our own destiny according to our own genius,” Jamir said. “The present DAN Government in Nagaland is ruling the State under the provisions of the 16-point Agreement, and the people of Nagaland should be happy for that.”
Jamir lamented the present on-going fratricide indulged in by the various factions of the Naga people and pointed out that “unless Nagas are united, understand each other, develop the sense of oneness the future for the Naga people are bleak.”
The students from Patkai College arrived here Friday evening and have been visiting various educational institutions and historical places. They are scheduled to leave for Bangalore on Monday for their next leg of education study. The team is led by Ms Maria, lecturer of Political Science department.
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