Thomas,
NNC Member
The Eastern Nagas are proud of Dr Anui Sainyiu as he is the first person to earn a PhD degree among the Eastern Naga youths in education from the Eastern part of Nagaland. I appreciated his statement, as he rightly mentioned that “The Naga National Council (NNC) was not founded to promote a particular political ideology or system of government. It was established as a national institution through which the political aspirations of the Naga people could be collectively articulated. His statement appeared in Morung Express on July 21, 2026.
He stated that the Nagas have their own established national institution, known as the NNC, which is still intact as it has never deterred nor surrendered the Naga national stand since its inception, so that we have the right to speak to the world up to date that the Nagas are a sovereign and independent nation. This year (2026), we will be observing the 80th Nagaland Independence Day on August 14.This indicates to the world that the NNC is tactfully safeguarding a sovereign Naga nation.
However, the institution has become weak because the Nagas have no unity after the formation of NSCN in 1980, 46 years ago. This needs to be restrengthened by all Nagas in one accord, as the NNC belongs to all Nagas, and every Naga who is born of the Naga blood is a member of the NNC. In the Nagaland Yehzabo (Constitution), it is written: “The Naga National Council shall be the only recognized political institution in Nagaland”. (Article 143).
But today the Nagas have many factions, not because of a lack of institution or surrendering it. But due to false propaganda of the NSCN, branding the NNC as a surrendered council. This created misunderstanding among the Nagas and weakened the institution of the NNC. Such misunderstandings should be resolved now that the Nagas in one voice speak to the world by celebrating Naga Independence Day and Plebiscite Day every year, in which no question of surrender.
Before, such false propaganda, the first division among the Nagas took place in 1960, when the so-called Naga People’s Convention (NPC) signed the 16-Point Agreement with the Government of India (GoI) and accepted statehood under the Indian Union, having their own opinion that the Nagas should have education and infrastructure development first, without considering that the Nagas could develop as an independent nation. The NPC deviated from the Naga national principle by disregarding the Naga national institution and joining a foreign national institution.
The second time division took place in 1980, when the NSCN was formed to formulate the proposal of Suisa. Accordingly, the NSCN-IM signed the Framework Agreement (FA) with the GoI on 3rd August, 2015, in order to implement Suisa’s proposal. This FA is also a result of deviation from the principles of the Naga nation and has gone away from the Naga national institution. Yet, now the NSCN factions are celebrating the Nagaland Independence Day every year, which speaks to the world that the Nagas are an independent nation.
The above-mentioned divisions were created only in breach of the Naga national principles and disregarding the existing Naga national institution and constitution. But not of institutional crisis, lack of it or weakness of the institution. However, they intentionally and deliberately deviated from the national principles enunciated by the Declaration of Independence in 1947 and the Plebiscite of May 1951. This breeds factionalism; hence, Nagaland has many factions now.
In such a growing trend of conditions, Dr Anui clearly mentions his idea of reforming by stating that “Reforming the NNC means renewing it as the common national institution within which different political organisations may participate while retaining their own identities”. He means that all factions must regard the NNC as a common institution and unanimously support it for solving the Indo-Naga-Burma Conflict.
I, therefore, would like to share my opinion with the young Naga educated people of today that to strengthen the existing Naga national institution of the NNC is imperatively needed by supporting it by the Nagas of all walks of life, without deviating from the Naga national principle. That would be automatically reforming the NNC as a common institution once again, following the immutable mandate given to the NNC by the Naga people on Plebiscite Day in 1951, to safeguard and speak for the future of Nagaland.
