Expressing displeasure and concern over the statement purportedly made by minister Temjen Imna Along that any settlement would be under the constitution of India and the Indian Union, Angami Youth Organization (AYO) youth force Sunday demanded that the minister withdraw his “irresponsible statement, clarify or publicly apologize before the matter goes out of hand.”
In a press note, AYO youth force secretary Zakie Khate said Along had the “audacity to defile the blood and tears” of more than 200,000 Nagas, who sacrificed their lives “to free Nagas beyond and above the parameters of India’s constitution and Union.” He stated that Along was “absolutely aware” that the Naga issue was exactly the opposite. The youth force said that Nagas, “precisely for this reason”, have been fighting for almost a century against India and before that almost another two centuries against British invasion since 1832.
Besides, it said Nagas also defended their “sovereign rights against the Ahoms, Metei Kingdoms etc before that since Ads in the age of Huein Tsang visitation of Ahom from China.” Maintaining that “Indo-Naga” issue was not a secessionist issue, the AYO youth force said: “It is not sedition. It is a matter of invasion by India.”
It said Nagas were “merely claiming what is rightly bequeathed from God to us for a rightful and respectable people adorned with justice, equality and fraternity in the homily of Nations.”
According to AYO youth force, Nagaland was “a puppet proxy state of India through coercive power”.
Further, asserting that Nagaland state was “an illegitimate child” of the Naga political movement, the youth force said it was entirely up to Nagas whether they water “this child to our advantage.”
AYO youth force, however, said that the Naga rights could never be sold out so cheaply. “Scotland, after almost 200 years faced a referendum. Catalonia of Spain inclusive of Madrid went for referendum just some few years ago to break away from UK and Spain respectively,” the youth force asserted.
Stating that Nagas were a struggling people equipped with “full honourable and undeniable rights”, the youth force, therefore, said that “such utterance from a minister is sheer stupidity, nonsensical and absurd.”