Four-time chief minister and former governor Dr. SC Jamir maintained that it was high time that the government of India demarcate the political status of the agreements already signed with Naga stakeholders and raise the final curtain on the Naga political issue.
In a statement, Dr. Jamir said Naga public were “fully aware of the Agreements of 3rd August 2015, 17th November 2017 and 31st October 2019”, adding that no further attempts be allowed to delay the final announcement. Dr. Jamir hoped that as the new year unfolds, the Prime Minister of India, in his political wisdom, would redeem the people of Nagaland and other Naga areas from the present impasse and usher in an era of stability “in this corner of India.”
He said that a peaceful Nagaland would ensure acceleration of a prosperous North-east and help realize Prime Minister Modi’s Act East policy. Dr. Jamir called for allowing the people of Nagaland to take care of their State and “similarly let others confine to their own States.”
Late comers making unrealistic claims: Dr. Jamir said that the pioneering older generation of the Naga political movement had committed themselves unselfishly and unreservedly to the cause they believed in and together with the people, incalculable sacrifices were made.
However, he said noted that today “the late comers, who joined the fray in more recent times”, were subsuming what they were never part of, and were making tall, unrealistic claims about deciding the fate of the Nagas of Nagaland without the people’s expressed mandate.
“A glimpse of the Naga political scenario today indicates that the road map appears to be more realistic than before,” Dr. Jamir said.
On the over hyped phrase ‘uniqueness of Naga history’, Dr. Jamir said it was then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who first coined and used the phrase at a press conference. He said that however, today it has become a common political phrase especially among the underground leaders. Dr. Jamir therefore posed- “Should we also not ask ourselves whether or not we have been making a ‘unique’ modern Naga history?” .
Nagas fed with fanciful pictures of their future: Dr. Jamir said that for several decades the Nagas were fed with all sorts of make-believe and fanciful pictures of the Naga future.
He said that people of Nagaland were made to sleep for a pretty long time by dreadful circumstances, dreaming illusory dreams and seeing intangible visions—detached from reality and flavoured with icings of falsehood.
He said Nagas have been “thoroughly mesmerized” by the constant rhetorical propaganda that except politics nothing mattered in the Naga collective life.
Dr. Jamir said side by side, anti-social and anti-national elements with their gun culture had unleashed fear psychosis in the minds of the entire population of Nagaland and kept them enslaved.
Due to this, he said people by and large were afraid to speak out the truth.
However, Dr.Jamir maintained that today’s younger generation of Nagas can no longer be held captive to the night of dismal and hideous make-believe fantasies and ephemeral dreams.
Materialism appears to have enslaved today’s leaders: Dr. Jamir said that Naga leaders who spearheaded the Naga political movement were true patriots and nationalists. He said that NNC was not only formed by the Nagas of Nagaland, but that the greatest sacrifices for its cause were also made by Nagas of today’s Nagaland.
Dr. Jamir maintained that he could vouch for the fact that the Central leaders were well aware that much of the ‘mess’ in the Naga society had been created by ‘outsiders’ and ‘tenants’.
He said that Nagas of Nagaland remained “unflinchingly committed” to the cause of a separate homeland.
Dr. Jamir said that in the initial years of the Naga political movement, Nagas lived in blood and sacrifice and gave their all for the Naga cause. He said “this movement propelled by the people’s aspiration” for a greater, brighter and better Naga future could be treated as “unique in the true sense of the term”.
He however said ideological differences and selfish polity among the leaders divided and weakened the most cherished movement.
Further, said sheer materialism appeared to have enslaved today’s leaders across the board.
Dr. Jamir said that for them ‘no solution is solution’ so they could “continue to loot the State and its people”.
The veteran Naga leader stated all the elected representatives of the Nagaland State Legislature, the tribal Hohos and Church leaders should, with one voice, demand that the government of India and the underground leaders immediately finalize the agreements and usher in permanent peace in Nagaland. “Time should not be wasted on interpretation of English words and phrases in their agreements that were signed,” he said.
He maintained that since sovereignty and integration of Naga territories have been ruled out, other issues should not be allowed to confuse the general public.
