Kohima, December 1 (MExN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) took exception to the Governor RN Ravi’s greeting to the people of Nagaland on the eve of 58th Statehood Day, terming it as a “shallow attempt” to mislead the Naga people “by glorifying the 16th Point Charter of Demands which had long been disowned by the Naga people.”
“Though there is no denying the fact that the creation of Nagaland did reap in monetary dividends for a section of the Naga people besides other tangible and intangible perks, it had only resulted in a more fractious Naga society and the Governor’s claim that it has been the best thing to happen to the Naga people only reveals his shallow understanding of the Naga history and also the narrow walls within which he has been trying to solve the vexed Indo-Naga Political issue,” the NSF said in a statement received here on Tuesday.
Further, it undermines and belittles the very people he has been assigned to have a political dialogue in-order to pave the way for lasting peace and tranquility all over the Naga homeland, it added.
It reminded the Governor, who is also the Interlocutor to the Indo Naga Peace Talks, that the Naga people are spread across four Indian states and two international countries “without their consent” and that “his mandated role should be to find a common ground for all the Naga people and not instigate further division by patronizing an agreement brought about by declared ‘traitors’ of the Naga cause.”
The NSF stated that the Naga people had “out-rightly rejected and disowned the theories forwarded in ‘Bedrock of Naga society’ and any attempt by Governor to legitimize the same through his statement reeks of insensitivity and disregard for the aspirations of the Naga people.”
“With his patronising of the illegitimate 16th Point charter of demands, the current peace process becomes doubtful to be enduring if the real representatives of peoples’ resistance are isolated like the past misadventures,” it added.
While acknowledging that the entire stretch of Naga homeland has its own share of violence and bloodshed, the NSF stated that “The Naga people’s assertion for self determination is in line with the inherent ethos, values and customary systems of the Naga society and not otherwise. More so, it is the policies of the GoI and their attempts to muzzle the voices of Naga people through militarization that is causing much harm to the Naga society.”
The wishes of the Naga people for early conclusion of the peace process should in no way be construed as the Naga peoples’ willingness to accept anything and everything that is handed over to them. Instead, it is merely the desire of the Naga people that the subjugation and oppression by outside forces are brought to an end at the earliest thereby reigning in a new era of peace wherein the dignity of every Naga soul is respected, it asserted.
The Federation appealed to the Interlocutor to “rise up from his self induced slumber and realise that the NPC’s 16th point charter of demands was a total failure and that it only sowed the seed for further division and confusion. He should also be reminded that the obvious failure of the impugned agreement to solve the Naga political issue led to the ceasefire and political dialogue with the NNC in 1964 and thereafter the endless political dialogue leading to this day.”
Further, the federation appealed Ravi to “refrain from furthering the old ‘carrot and stick’ policy and adopt a more pragmatic approach in-order to ensure that the interests of the two entities are upheld through the political solution,” in the interest of both the Indians and the Naga people.
