Robert A. Silverstein
New York, USA
In an article by me titled, “Life versus truth and justice,” appearing in The Morung Express on October 12, 2016 and in the Nagaland Post on October 13, 2016, I stated, early in the article, “I consider Kaka Iralu a friend..... [W]hen we met near the end of June, 2016, at The Hotel Vivor in Kohima, I found him to be a warm, caring, and open-minded man, a man who obviously loved his fellow Nagas very much.”
I now have serious doubts about what I said in the last clause of the above sentence, that Iralu “obviously loved his fellow Nagas very much.” In the face of my allegation, which he has never denied, that, whether the Nagas deserve a separate sovereign nation or not, the government of India (GoI) will never agree to such a nation, he writes article after article using words like the ones he closed with in the article I am now responding to:
Political suppression with economic gifts by India is what is destroying Nagaland today.Here, I will fight the political suppression rather than fight to have a lion's share of the economic gifts. [Iralu is referring to my pointing out that most Nagas have taken advantage of the “gifts” offered under the Indian constitution and statutes to a “scheduled tribe.”] As far as I am concerned, only a TOTALLY UNPATRIOTIC MAN with no sense for the dignity of his national and geographical identity would WALLOW in the enemy's gifts of seductions to subjugate him.
I will not collaborate with the enemy, when the enemy has NULLIFIED MY VERY RIGHT TO LIFE, FREEDOM AND LIBERTY even within the territories of my own country. [My caps – that is, my emphasis.] Earlier in his article he states, “...I am not interested in my enemy's gifts of even the whole state with its entire infrastructure WHICH HAS LULLED MOST NAGAS TO SLEEP FOR OVER SIX DECADES. For me, this state is just a farce and a shadow of the real image of a truly independent country.” (My emphasis, again.)
And yet in an article I wrote that appeared in The Morung Express on October 27, 2016, titled, “Reply to Kaka Iralu's 'The desecration of political truths and justice in Nagaland',” he, over the same lunch that I mentioned in my opening paragraph, agreed with me, that Nagaland, were it to ever become a separate sovereign nation, would “simply be a poor corrupt nation instead of a poor corrupt state.” The reason he agreed with me when I stated that is because he had just informed me that corruption was such an intimate and integral part of Naga society that it could never be eradicated.
Now it is time to focus on what all of the above means, putting Iralu's words together, words that are contradictory and incoherent. He shows complete contempt for all the Nagas who “wallow in the enemy's gifts....” Is it “wallowing” to want your children to have a good education and a good job? Are all the individuals who accept these things “totally unpatriotic”? That is what he says.
He shows no empathy for all the men and women who want their families to have all the benefits that many of them never had. He puts his principles before his fellow Nagas. He does not deny that I am right in saying that the GoI will never allow the Nagas a sovereign nation. He in effect states that, whatever may happen, they are “unpatriotic” fools if they do not accept his priority of a sovereign nation over the “gifts” of education and jobs, even over life itself.
I have stated, in previous articles, that to continue to push for a sovereign nation will lead to the destruction of the Naga people. I will not repeat all the reasons for that, but Iralu has not denied that I am right. What is clear is, he rather be dead than under the Indian constitution, dead rather than compromise. That's all fine and good for HIM, but he has made it clear that if he has to drag all Nagas to their deaths for his goal of a sovereign nation, that is fine with him. After all, to do otherwise would concede that it is all right if the “enemy has nullified my very right to life, freedom and liberty ….”
Iralu is not interested in asking “most Nagas” whether they view their present situation as one in which the GoI is depriving them of their “very right to life, freedom and liberty,” and he will NEVER ask them, because he knows that they may disagree with him.
They may in fact agree with me that the loss of life and liberty in the Naga communities of Nagaland, Manipur, and elsewhere is more the fault of the corrupt and violent NSCN-IM and their corrupt and cowardly partners in the state assemblies and elsewhere than the GoI.
Remember, Iralu agreed with me that a free and sovereign Naga nation would just be a poor and corrupt Naga nation instead of a poor and corrupt Naga state. And those who are corrupt and violent now would still be the same ones who bleed the Naga people of their lifeblood in a new Naga nation.
I recommend to Iralu and all who read this article that they read, “Bitter Wormwood,” by a Naga writer, Easterine Kire. It is an excellent novel about the Naga relationship with the Indian soldiers and the terrible conflicts and atrocities over the decades.
But the most significant thing in the book to me is her Appendix V, a real speech given by a namesake of Kaka Iralu, Niketu Iralu.
Kire has a note to the speech, titled, “Historical Rights of the Nagas and their Quest for Integration,” in which she says, “The best analysis of the struggle: author[.]” May the wisdom of Niketu Iralu's words be passed on to my friend Kaka Iralu and to all others who read them.
Here they are: ....Delhi is in no position at all to talk on sovereignty, not because the Naga case is wrong or legally and politically invalid, but because India is too young a democracy still in a chaotic stateof formation to handle the issue. And Nagas have done virtually nothing to speak to the minds and hearts of the Indian people whose understanding alone can solve the problem. [Page 262.]
If Nagas are prepared to negotiate for something other than sovereignty despite the full legal legitimacy of their claim for it, because they understood India's difficulty on the issue, it should be not too difficult for Delhi to accept what Nagas mean by “honourable, acceptable settlement.” [Page 264.]
