Robert A. Silverstein
New York , USA
A gentleman named Thomas (no last name given), representing the NNC, sent in a short article in response to my article of yesterday titled, “Reply to Kaka Iralu's 'The desecration of political truths and justice in Nagaland'.” Iralu himself has replied to my article, and I will respond to his reply in a separate article.
First, Thomas is not a positive reflection on his fellow NNC members, in that he spelled my name three different ways in the less than 20 lines that make up his article. Perhaps the NNC should choose someone who has the capacity to show respect to myself, as I hope to show him, by paying more attention to what he is writing and who he is writing to.
Second, he says that I “stated that the Nagas under the so-called Indian state are not become [Thomas's words] prosperous but corrupted.
That is true.”
But that is NOT what I said. I said that the corruption and violence in Naga society was the result of the corruption and violence of the NSCN-IM, which controls all of Nagaland, including the corrupt and cowardly members of the state assembly, and controls the Nagas of Manipur the same way.
Thomas also quotes me, correctly, as saying that, “A separate Naga nation will never happen....” But I have NEVER said that the Nagas do not deserve a separate nation. I have made clear, from the very first article that was published in “The Morung Express,” on April 4, 2016, that I am taking no position on the issue of whether the Naga people deserve a separate nation. What I have stated, again and again, is that they will never get such a separate nation because the government of India (GoI) will never agree to such a nation. I then have argued that to drag the Naga people into a fight with the GoI over the Naga demand for such a nation will lead to the destruction of the Naga people. In other words, I am fighting for the life of the Nagas, not against a nation for the Nagas. For all my arguments on these issues, please see my previous articles.
Two more points. First, it seems strange to me that someone from the NNC is writing an article against my position, when my article attacks the NSCN-IM, an organization that has taken a position that the NNC committed treason against the nationalist movement when it participated in the peace accord of 1964 with representatives of the GoI.
In May, 2015 I spent a number of hours talking (through an interpreter) with L. Kaiso, then the secretary of the NNC. I found him intelligent, caring, open to reason and discussion, and kind enough when, upon my leaving, he gave me one of his canes, which even now sits in my living room here in Albany, New York. My hours in the Chedema Peace Camp, not just with Mr. Kaiso but with others living there, was a few of the most precious hours that I've spent in my four previous trips to Nagaland.
As far as Thomas's allegation that I am being “bribed by India to write against the Naga nationalism,” I await proof of this allegation, from Thomas or anyone else. I am a 73-year-old retired American lawyer and a registered nurse, who discovered Nagaland, discovered a wonderful culture, and a number of Nagas who I now proudly call my friends, and am fighting to keep them alive and well in the midst of a nationalist craze that is, in my opinion, going to bring them nothing but destruction.
I also am fighting to have the honest Nagas of both Nagaland and Manipur break the stranglehold of corruption and violence that the NSCN-IM has on their throats. If the NSCN-IM disagrees with me, then THEY should address my allegations, rather than leaving it to someone from an organization that they themselves have accused of betraying the Naga people.
