It came as a mild surprise that this author was invited to join the meeting being convened at Hebron on the 21st September 2019 at 11.00 am. Perhaps because of my persistent stand against the opaqueness of the Framework Agreement (henceforth referred to as FA) not being fair to the ultimate stakeholders, I was deliberately handpicked from the basket of a large assortment of ‘intellectual’ personalities present at that meeting, to read out the content of the FA…which I obliged. This one page document simply acknowledges the unique history of the Nagas among other matters and lays down a broad guiding principle of dealing with each other as two entities with mutual respect and understanding for each others’ difficulties. In a way it is an unfortunate document that India can interpret it differently from their side of the fence and for the Nagas to read it differently from their side of the fence as well. Nevertheless this document did not merit the magnitude of a clandestine ‘cloak and dagger’ charade that had unnecessarily fermented serious speculations…mostly negative.
After listening to what the President, the Vice President and Ato Kilonser, Shri. Th. Muivah had to say about seeking Indo-Naga solution based on the principle of Indian’s acknowledgement of the ‘Unique History of the Nagas’, which spawned the emergence of a new political theory of a friendly co-existence between two independent entities under the banner of ‘shared sovereignty’…and underlining their determined unwillingness to sign the final settlement without “Naga Constitution and Flag…come what may”…and stressing the need for “greater understanding amongst the Nagas and the need for the Nagas to stand together in this matter”… and that “the Nagas want the indo-Naga solution based on the principle of Shared Sovereignty.”…the stage gave way to Retd. Gen. V.S. Atem to read out a couple of clauses in the ‘Competency clauses’ (henceforth referred to as CC) which was claimed to have by-and-large been agreed upon by the GoI for implementation as the final solution. In fact, to me…the matter of concern for the Nagas was not very much the FA but what lies within this charter of CC. The overall contents of CC received only a cursory attention of those in attendance with a more general emotional expressions centring on the subject of “Naga Yezabo and Naga Flag” by those who spoke. Many, in fact most, did not even get an opportunity to express themselves.
After opening the subject on CC, on just a couple of points as a starter that: (a) the “Indian Parliament cannot abrogate any clause of competencies without a 2/3 majority…as equally without a 2/3 majority endorsement of the Tatar Hoho (Naga Parliament) for such an amendment to be affected” and that: (b) “the State of Nagaland will cease to exist” to be replaced with “People’s Government of Nagaland”. With that the floor was opened for discussion.
When I ventured to express my candid views on stage by (i) acknowledging the laudable achievement of NSCN (IM) for bringing the Indo-Naga issue from confrontation to negotiation; but that (ii) they had negated their achievement by wanting a final solution on their own without the inclusion of other Factions despite expressly stating the need for greater understanding and the need for Nagas to stand together; yet (iii) profess conditional forgiveness for other Factions to join the ‘NSCN (IM) mainstream’ that defies the very principle of Christian forgiveness which ought to be unconditional; but be that as it may…(iv) it was very unlikely that the leadership of Mr. Muivah would be questioned by other Factional Leaders considering the stature of his experience and sacrifices and should therefore consider ‘the coming together’ of all Factions under NSCN in exclusion of (IM)/ U/ R/ K…just simply NSCN in the spirit of “greater understanding and standing together” in keeping with the spirit of what Ato Kilonser had expressed; that (v) any settlement with the GoI by one Faction in the absence of the others would not usher in lasting peace; that (vi) the common man can no longer be expected to continue shouldering the extreme unbridled taxation by all the Factions; and that: (v) without integration the picture of Nagaland becomes blur; That was as far as I was allowed to go when I was abruptly stopped by Mr. Atem from continuing my address.
Had I been ten years younger…I would have taken cognizance of this public insult and immediately walk out of this meeting but as an elderly man I restrained my inner core urge and stayed to the end. Mr. Atem then proceeded to recount the other items in their long list of CC.
At this time I will only focus on a few gray areas in the long list of CC that was read out. For instance let’s take the clause that says “The State of Nagaland will cease to exist and be replaced by ‘Peoples Government of Nagaland'” covering all Naga areas. In the same breath another item in CC talked about other “Naga inhabited areas having autonomous territorial councils” (perhaps in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh) in the absence of integration which will not be effected immediately but will take place in 3/4/5 years time in the future through a democratic process. The immediate thought that occurred to me was…”Nagas have yet not learnt our lesson from the 16 point agreement which included integration of the Naga inhabited area but was left to be decided later”…which never happened. However, herein lies the confusion: When it is clearly and publicly stated that “the State of Nagaland will cease to exist”, it necessarily means that the present Nagaland would belong to all Nagas living everywhere else even if integration is not a part of the final solution…but at the same time other Naga inhabited area will independently function under an ‘autonomous territorial councils’ with legislative, executive and judiciary authority within such territories.
Would the Nagas of Nagaland be willing to just disappear in acceptance of such a propositional “Carrot” that integration will happen in the near future through democratic process that India has no courage to go through with it now or ever, and in the mean time we the Nagas of Nagaland still have to disappear and allow all Nagas from everywhere to enjoy the same ‘free for all’ rights as the Nagas of Nagaland that ceases to exist in anticipation of territorial integration which is very unlikely to ever happen?….that is the mother of all questions. The very idea of ‘Shared Sovereignty’ which dwells on increased representation in the Indian Parliament, the consistency of expecting financial support in a wide spectrum of infrastructural development, which includes the Naga Army being funded by GoI, until such time Nagas can stand on its own feet…clearly spells ‘dependency’ not ‘sovereignty’.
The issue of “Yezabo” being incorporated as a part of the solution can be argued to a degree that India had mostly never upheld its side of the agreement in the past and therefore having the “Yezabo” as a guaranteed status of the Naga identity seems warranted even if linked with the Indian Constitution in whatever manner. Here too, the status of “Shared Sovereignty” definition comes to some confusion: If Nagas are independent of the Indian Constitution…how can the Indian Parliament abrogate any CC that is not within the Indian Constitution? Yet we are talking about 2/3 majority of the Indian Parliament being debarred from making unilateral decisions against the Nagas’ interests.
The other areas of concern in CC also has to do with reference to Pan-Naga Hoho as a ‘statutory’ body with a separate budget (funded by GoI), having unspecified powers and functions to be worked out by the body in due course. This body will be represented by Nagas from all areas (autonomous territorial councils) to promote and safeguard the identity, integrity, interest, the socio-cultural (aspect) and the language of Nagas…and that the Pan-Naga Hoho will have advisory role in the area of education and developmental activities. The lack of clarity in the ultimate status of the Pan Naga Hoho gives rise to a great deal of gray areas that could be very uncomfortable for the Nagas of Nagaland…”which will no longer exist”. In short I am only presenting a few gray area clauses which calls for further insight before the Nagas of Nagaland can feel at ease. It is imperative that a more concise responsible body of critical thinkers should be constituted to sit and debate each clause with the ‘supremos’ of the NSCN (IM) so that a realistic and actionable analysis of the CC can be arrived at. While a big gathering for the purpose of creating awareness is fine, such a large gathering will never be in a position to render a more specific actionable input. As of now…I would candidly say that a lot of ironing out requirement seems to exist in the CC which spells concern and uncertainty for the Nagas of Nagaland.
At the end of the day it appears to me that while the 7 NNPG working Group has come out openly to accept the Indian Constitution while attempting to safeguard the overall identity of the Nagas, the approach of NSCN (IM) with their “Shared Sovereignty” philosophy is equally working towards a similar solution that too has a great deal of linkages with Indian Constitution in one form or the other but prefers not to say so in so direct a way. For the present I leave the rest to the Nagas to spend some quality time to contemplate on what has been put on the table thus far. Remember that I too am rather confused at this point!
Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd);
Upper Forest Colony, Kohima.