Fellow national workers,
The conflict between Nagaland and India has reached the 69th year. In these many years, how has a small nation like Nagaland been able to withstand a giant nation like India? We have been able to withstand, because we have a right. There are many internal political problems in India. These political problems in India are caused by “rebels” within India. But Nagas are not “rebels”. Nagas are not rebels because even before India declared her own independence on 15th Aug. 1947, Nagas had declared to the world on 14th August 1947 that Nagaland shall belong to the Nagas. This declaration was done before the British left India.
Nagas are not asking anything from India. But India on her part brought a war into Nagaland and caused terrible suffering and death to Naga man, women and even children. But though we were unprepared and unarmed, the whole nation rose up to defend itself. In that defense, because we had a government of our own, we even succeeded in bringing an international ceasefire between our government and the government of India in 1964. But even as peace talks were underway in search of a solution, India brought into Nagaland the dirty game of “politics” which is essentially an internal struggle for political power within a state. In this dirty political game, they sought out the educated among us and started to seduce them with offers of comfortable Quarters, Servants, and Secretaries etc and wooed them away from our national stand.
In the subsequent years, many of these Nagas who had been “bought” by India’s seductions became very rich people, while those who had sacrificed themselves for the nation’s cause became people living in hardship. But whatever these “Bought Nagas” have done, we must still remember that our own fellow Nagas are not “The Enemy.”
In human history, it is not always the “majority crowd” that brings redemption and stability to a nation. On the contrary, it is often a small dedicated group of patriots that changes the course of a nation’s history and destiny.
India was under foreign colonial rule for many years and it is now only sixty nine years, since she attained her separate identity. But will India today, after becoming a big nation, disgrace herself by forcefully trying to annex a tiny nation like Nagaland? Presently, India is trying to assimilate and portray all her neighboring states in her north east as “North East India.” But India knows very well that Nagas have their own government and are not a part of their North East India. This is evident because the government of India signed a Ceasefire Agreement with the Federal Government of Nagaland in 1964. Therefore, let us be clear that Nagaland is not inside what India now calls “North East India.”
Also on August 3, 2015, India declared to the world that they have entered into a “Peace Accord” with the NSCN IM. But now they are calling that Peace Accord as “A Framework Agreement.” This shows that they already had an agreed settlement between themselves before declaring the Peace Accord. For the past several years, on the one hand, India has been sending its troops into the villages doing so called development works while its army had fully occupied Nagaland. On the other hand, the NSCN was used for killing many Naga patriots under the cover of India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act. While all these things were going on, the Indian army was used as a peace keeping force supposedly looking after the welfare of our people. In order to nullify the NNC and FGN, the Indian government had desperately used the NSCN to lead the Nagas into a power struggle within themselves. But the Naga stand is not a power struggle among themselves.
In spite of all these set backs, our trust in God and the presence of able leaders has enabled us to prevail. So let us continue to pray that the evil days may pass so that our people can revert back to their former lives of self sufficiency and happy living.
When India brought a war into our country, even communications among ourselves was very difficult. But today, because of the satellites and the internet, that communication problem has been removed. In today’s global world, India can never again repeat her brutal war against the Nagas because now no nations can do anything in secret.
Nagas are a nation and are living in their own country. But let us be wary and vigilant against all the evil schemes that the Indian Hindu BJP government is trying to introduce to our people. Let us all continue to pray that God will protect us from all these evil schemes.
Adinno Phizo President Naga National Council, Nagaland
