It took eleven years after entering into a ceasefire agreement with the Government of India before Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) launched an initiative to provide a platform for all factional groups and social bodies in Chiangmai to agree on a board framework and to define a new relationship that could well see the end of Naga insurgency and factional feud. The outcome needs to be hailed through the convention of hope fails to achieve a authority, yet well begun is half done. The forum has definitely risen above petty politics to overlook the fact that sovereignty in present context is a dead-end and impossible aim to achieve and sovereignty subsidized by Indian Union is an irrational and unethical objective. More than to anything else it is the mandate of the local Naga has surfaced to accept a solution that settles for a constitution within the constitution.
The Fact that since last year peace initiatives has been voiced by various forums amplifies the fact that Naga has been yearning for peace. However, prerequisite to peace is reconciliation needs to be understood and looked at with a wide angled lens. This explains the fact why initiative launched by GB/DBs forum, church bodies failed to gather momentum, as all were efforts in isolation on different planes altogether. FNR seems to have learnt from others mistakes as evident from the homogenous mixture of participants and the pledge taken to initiate action towards Naga Peace, unity and reconciliation in the sprit of forgiveness and mutual acceptance.
Having dwelled upon the positive initiative one needs to analyse the other side as well before drawing any conclusion. The fact that peace without reconciliation within factions can not able achieved need no amplification as one finds no change in the attitude of warning factions shedding blood almost on daily basic. Such peace initiatives looses its value when Naga brothers continue to get slaughtered to settle factional scores. Ideology at the highest level needs an orientation and change to influence it down at grass root level. The forum at Chiangmai was the ideal platform for shaking hands of Muivah and Khaplang yet they prefer to remain silent. Time has gone when speeches alone could generate wonders, present sit demands action on ground and will to enforce it. The future will continue to be dark till leadership at both level decide to shed age old rivalry and bitter experiences and burn them as past.
Yet the bitter truth remains that time is running out fast. The common man has suffered enough courtesy the long drawn of factional war. With tribal organization and apex bodies of church, NGOs voicing their opinion for peace no faction holds the right to call themselves the sole negotiator for the ‘Naga Cause’. The call of the day pledges to uphold the values of human rights and self-determination and exploitation without territorial demarcation among fellow Nagas. It serves as a wake up call to all factions to end the blood path and provide an umbrella to ensure all Nagas remain in peace. Future beckons ideas to transform into reality, dream into truth, words into actions and oath with sincerity the journey has begun and Nagas have joined it, only time will fell whether factions can resolve differences to form a part of the bandwagon less they chose to get marginalized within their own land. Peace and reconciliation seemed a distant dream yesterday yet today Nagaland stands on the threshold of achieving it.
K V Angami
Kohima
