Z Lohe
The local papers published the official statement of the Naga Hoho (NH) on the implementation of the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) on 20.3.2021. The Naga Hoho vehemently warned both the JCPI and the State Government of Nagaland not to go ahead in haste but rather “RIIN should be handled with outmost care as it could have unforeseen and dangerous implications for the Nagas as a people”. For this particular concern, I am sure that the Govt. of Nagaland is bound to take all relevant legal aspects into consideration when the law is enacted. The “Naga Hoho is genuinely apprehensive of the negative ramifications if certain organizations are allowed to piggyback on it to advance their vested interests ….“. This very apprehension of the Naga Hoho is a wrong perception on who is the competent authority to enact the law and also the competent authority to implement the law when enacted. The law in question will be enacted by the Nagaland Legislative Assembly and it will be enforced by the State Government. Whereas, the State Government is not a private organization and therefore the fear of Naga Hoho that “certain organizations are allowed to piggyback on it to advance their vested interests” is the ignorance of how a constitutionally established Government runs. A constitutional Government is never run by private organizations but by the elected representatives of the people.
Also, the language of the Naga Hoho that “if certain organizations are allowed to piggyback on it to advance their vested interests” implicates the organizations in Nagaland to have been managed with “vested interests” is found unsavory. The reality being that almost all the organizations that established in Nagaland used to play the role of good host to all the common Naga activities be it political or social. Yet, how the organizations in Nagaland is implicated by the Naga Hoho is always the attitudes of Nagaland’s parasites who remained insatiable and thankless.
Against the backdrop of RIIN, again the Naga Hoho stated that “the idea of the Nagas as a people to live together and their aspiration to live with self-determination will be irreparably damaged.” Well, I understand and believe the philosophy of the Naga integration is to amalgamate the Naga contiguous areas into a single State. In other words, wherever the Nagas are, we bring our lands together so that we co-own over the total area of the Naga ancestral lands as and when the integration is achieved. Till then the Nagas remaining in respective States is a reality. The assertion of the legal and constitutional rights of the Nagas of Nagaland over their land and its resources cannot be misinterpreted and miss-construed as anti-thesis to Naga political aspiration. The Art 371(A) is not against the Naga self-determination. If at all, we get land integration, in all possibility the very Article 371(A) may become extendable to the total area of the Naga territory. If at all, the Nagas get sovereignty this Article 371(A) will become irrelevant. However, so long as Nagaland remains as a State in India, this Article 371(A) will continue remaining dear to Nagaland. Therefore, prior to the amalgamation of our respective lands, the other Nagas from outside Nagaland cannot impose their will on the Nagas of Nagaland particularly at the cost of land rights.
Look at how the Naga Hoho understands and blames the ILP and the RIIN as “a gambit to throw a spanner in the Nagas’ aspiration for integration of Naga ancestral homeland by sowing seeds of division between the Nagas of different States so as to leverage Nagaland as a legitimate political entity in the best interest of the so called Pure Indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland.” The Naga Hoho considers “the RIIN to be the Chanakyaish master stroke of the hawkish strategists, a Trojan horse to ripe the Nagas off to the hilt from within and without. RIIN is just like the swirling tail of the predatory snake to attract and fools its prey and the ILP is like the head of the snake with its full fangs to incapacitate the Nagas as preys. RIIN imposed on the Nagas by the Nagas themselves is going to be the perfect stratagem to erect the Berlin wall of the Nagas.” This is how the Naga Hoho condemns Nagaland’s protective provisions.
I had sufficiently written and spoken on how much the Nagas from other States are found wanted particularly in Naga integration issue. Yet, when the Naga Hoho compels, comparatively speaking what has been the contribution of the Nagas from other States in pursuance of the Naga integration? What more do they expect from the Nagas of Nagaland than the five consecutive Nagaland Legislative Assembly resolutions on Naga integration? When the Naga Hoho brands ILP and RIIN to be “sowing seeds of division” you may at the same time lay on the table on how much seeds of unity the Naga Hoho has sown so far. The Naga Hoho considering the RIIN to be ‘a Trojan horse’ is nothing less than a language of frustration since there is no hidden agenda behind the screen of RIIN which objective is conspicuous and very congruous as to the existing laws of the land. The Hoho calls the ILP and the RIIN to be provocative ‘to the hilt’ as ‘the Chanakyaish masterstroke of the hawkish strategists’ is more of self-incendiary. In fact, the ILP and the RIIN are antonym to what the Hoho believes.
The Naga Hoho compares the RIIN to that of the tail of the viper. I am not asking the Hoho to tone down the degree of the language and yet the Naga Hoho has no legitimate power to dictate the Nagas of Nagaland what to do and what not to do as far as the protective laws are concern. In fact, for the sake of the Nagas from other States, how ILP can be repealed, how the Art 371(A) be abrogated and how the RIIN be discouraged no matter how the Naga Hoho feels bitter about our special legal provisions? The State of Nagaland was neither created to please the existing Naga Hoho nor can it be used at its whims. The State of Nagaland was born out of a political arrangement with its own special status which may be an eyesore to the Hoho. Again the ILP is branded as the head of the snake by which the Nagas, meaning from outside Nagaland, would become preys as they would be incapacitated by the provision is indeed exaggeration and wrongly translated as Nagaland is not man eater. The hospitability of Nagaland is taken as a weakling.
Reading between the lines, it is very obvious that the Naga Hoho is so irritated that Nagaland remains to enjoy special status with special Constitutional provisions, and the Hoho is so passionate as to how these special provisions are stripped off. These special provisions are considered to be an anathema to those few non-indigenous Nagas or other non-indigenous citizens who happened to possess landed properties in Nagaland, and when the laws are properly enforced the interests of those few would be jeopardized. Can the indigenous Nagas of Nagaland sacrifice our protective provisions of ILP, Art 371(A), etc. for the convenience of those who have possessed landed properties knowing the existing laws of Nagaland?
The statement of the Naga Hoho was published on 20.3.2021 and till 31.3.2021 no organization or individual from Nagaland has objected. Can I take it that barring me, the rest has agreed with the Naga Hoho that Nagaland’s political status be lowered to the level of the rest of the other States? As for me, though I may be alone, I will continue to voice against those forces which are directly destroying Nagaland or fighting to legally cripple Nagaland as mercenary like Naga Hoho. Legally speaking, the Naga Hoho of today is alien to Nagaland, it is absurd for an organization like Naga Hoho to undermine the indigenous Nagas of Nagaland. What locus standi the Naga Hoho has to intimidate the aboriginal Nagas of Nagaland in particular for Hoho’s vested interests in Nagaland? Does Naga Hoho believe that its sponsors are superior to the indigenous Nagas of Nagaland who are secondary? The very statement of the Naga Hoho is indeed a great insult to the sons and daughters of the soil of the beautiful Nagaland.
