Joel Naga
Isak Chishi Swu- dead. SS Khaplang - dead. The procession of dead leaders is beginning to pile up rather uncomfortably under the careful watch of the GoI. Nagas will respectfully offer the routine and customary rich tributes at the funerals and for some, candlelight vigils will suffice where time, space, and distance are issues. After 19 years of peace-talks, the GoI cannot help but silently ridicule our foolishness and gullibility, pandering to our egos with high-sounding words like 'Unique Naga History', 'Shared Sovereignty' and so on. In reality, there's nothing. The Naga movement is finished, dead, and zipped like a body bag, ready to be thrown into the Arabian sea- or the Tizu River. With time on its side, India simply awaits for adaptable Nagas to bury the last of their leaders. Then, maybe, with the right national political climate, a little push of the hounds to hunt down the last of the rabbits- the intransigent bastards, the Naga problem will be solved in India's favour. Unless.... In the meantime, the self-glorification, the zipping around with Z+ security but with nothing to show even after 19 years of talks is the futility. Talk of unity and reconciliation has never evoked the kind of fatigue as is witnessed among Nagas today. Atleast late Khaplang before his death understood that 15 years of cease-fire without accompanying talks is humiliating, and talks without settlement meaningless. On the flip side, before the NTC brought the other groups together through the formation of a Working Group (WG), none of the 6 organisations had the stature nor the vision to concretise their manpower and influence (if any) in a direction acceptable to Nagas as a whole. These groups were wholly satisfied playing the victim card. There's this joke that Pakistan exists only because India exists.
Though stuck in a muck, the IM caravan is still active. Now, with the possibility that the GoI too may kickstart the WG's dormant engine as well, it's important to carry the momentum. If Nagas to a man and a boy agree that after 70 years of political struggle we do deserve a final political settlement- spearheaded by IM and the WG both, it's essential that we do start a movement- a resolve not to participate in the 2018 elections pending settlement to the Naga issue through adoption of the same cry "Solution Not Election" as raised in 1998. For too long, running with the hare and hunting with the hounds had been the poisoned chalice for Nagas. We've to admit that Nagas lack a coherent NATIONAL STRATEGY. The Kashmiris have ONE. During the 2017 LS bye-election in Srinagar Constituency, Kashmir, where Farooq Abdullah was elected, the voter turnout was hardly 7%. It was indeed a shocking result, with its tremors felt from Delhi to Brussels, HQ of the European Union. This was right after J&K had polled a high of 65% voter turnout in 2014 Assembly elections. But Kashmiris by and large since 1989 has refused to recognise Indian elections. For the last 25 years of so, the polling percentage in Jammu & Kashmir elections has been low, with 1989 scoring the lowest voter turnout at 10% overall, and 2002 with only 26% turnout in the valley. In the 2002 elections, 6 constituencies polled less than 5%. In Amirakadal constituency with 74, 442 registered voters, only 2,280 voted. Since 2002, the voter turnout in 26 constituencies in Kashmir valley (total 46) has been less than 20% till date. In the LS elections held in 1999, Kashmir valley elected 3 MPs (J&K=6 MPs) with voter turnout of 4.81%, 6. 89% and 11% respectively. It was a farce result but not surprising since the call of Azaadi or independence is shrillest in the Valley. Against such consistent low turnouts, when the 2014 elections returned high voter turnout figure of 65%, the European Union (EU) was compelled to release a statement saying "The high voter turnout proves that democracy is firmly rooted in India." It was a victory day for India but then came the 7% turnout shocker in 2017. Call them thugs, stone pelters, terrorists, Paki supporters, yet, the grassroot Kashmiris have consistently defied the temptation to indulge in Indian elections save for a few ocassions. It is the grassroot abhorence for Indian elections firm in the belief that such indulgences would destroy their dream of Azaadi that keeps the Kashmiri issue alive, Pakistan or no Pakistan. Needless to say, low turnouts put the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in extremely uncomfortable positions vis-a-vis Pakistani propaganda.
The 7% voter turnout in 2017 bye-poll set the Indian media and the political establishment ablaze. Apart from the stone-pelting, it raised the spectre that the ordinary Kashmiris have truly seceded, atleast emotionally, from the Indian Union.
On the other hand, the Naga approach to Indian elections is buffoonish and in total contrast to the Kashmiri situation. There's no doubt that the average voter turnout in the Naga elections cannot be not less than 90%. Though our high turnout is motivated by clan/village/range and tribe politics or money factor, and less to do with love for mother India, such high turnouts in favour of Constitutionally mandated elections generally spurs establishment people like Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home, to chip in that the NSCN-K, or the IM, U, R for that matter, are 'misguided elements' and therefore the appeal to them 'to return to mainstream' with promises to 'rehabilitate' them with 'economic packages'. It's always a propaganda coup for the Indian establishment when Nagaland, Manipur, and Punjab return high voter turnouts, giving ample fodder for its PR exercise that the masses have rejected 'extremists' in favour of 'development and progress.' Therefore, the NPGs do not realise how much they themselves have dampened the very Cause by actively participating in State elections, propping up their 'own governments' or their own relatives into the Legislative Assembly.
When the forerunner of the present NPF, the NPC, in 1998 mooted Solution Not Election, the Congress went ahead and filed nominations. Having learnt a lesson from that debacle, the NPF leadership can't even imagine undertaking such an exercise again. However, the party is reminded that it has been championing the Naga cause for a long time, even to the extent of declaring in 2003 that it will solve the Naga issue in 3 months. Recently, the newly formed DPP has once again averred that its objective is to support and expedite Naga political settlement. After decades of rhetoric, bluff, and lip service, perhaps it's time for all the political parties to seriously ponder at the ramifications of continued and protracted armed struggle.
We're at a cross-road. Armed faction(s), no matter how powerful and cerebrally endowed will achieve nothing on their own. Since the NTC has managed the impossible on two counts: one, bring all the 6 factions together and two, managed to convey the message that the GoI should negotiate with the 6 factions, perhaps, this may be the last opportunity for Nagas to rally behind the Naga National Workers, and convey the hard-hitting message to the GoI that as citizens of a democratic country, we as any other citizens have the fundamental right to live our lives in peace, prosperity, and in dignity. Dignity means a settled Naga issue resolved once and for all. Thus, the GoI has a bounden duty to settle the Naga issue. However, to translate this message into reality, we need to adopt hard and practical measures, which are, to initiate a movement comprising of political parties, civil society orgnisations, students, grassroot level organisations, and the Church campaigning for non-participation in the 2018 elections pending solution to the 70 year old Indo-Naga political problem. However, this is where we differ from the Kashmiris. Our refusal to participate in Indian Constitutional elections does not make Nagas anti-India, instead, it should be viewed as a last ditched effort to force the hand of India to sincerely settle the Naga issue through non-violent, Gandhian means. After all, almost every Naga now subscribe themselves to the Indian Constitution, including the NPGs.
