PM should resolve Naga issue before showcasing Hornbill festival: TNR

With India planning to showcase Hornbill Festival when it assumes the G20 presidency on December 1, The Naga Rising (TNR) Wednesday said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi should resolve the Naga political issue before showcasing the Festival.
TNR convenor Along Longkumer and secretary Khriezodilhou Yhome said that India, which is set to shoulder global leadership role, must ask what would better reflects its image at the global stage– resolving the Naga political issue before showcasing the Hornbill Festival of Nagaland “through the lens of G20” or after.
TNR also said the Prime Minister must demonstrate courage and clarify the ambiguity surrounding the stand of Delhi on the Naga issue. TNR said clarification would help pave the way for the long-awaited solution.
Reminding the Prime Minister’s message at international forums that the present era was not the time for war, TNR said PM Modi in the same breath should realise that “this is not the era of divide and rule but of peace and resolution.”
Further, TNR said that the Government of India (GoI) can resolve the Naga issue if it accepts the “simple truth that the Naga issue is political in nature—not cultural or law and order.”
It said that the wide spectrum of political support towards the Naga peace process through successive Indian Prime Ministers should neither be undermined at this stage.
In the negotiations for a peaceful solution, TNR said the NPGs have gone out of their way to understand the difficulties of the government of India and have met it halfway on integration, sovereignty and other core issues that were earlier considered non-negotiable by the Nagas.
TNR said that the flag and constitution, which were the only unresolved issue, was neither a threat nor diminish India’s standing as an emerging global power. “These symbols are embedded in the unique history and situation of the Nagas, as rightly acknowledged and recognized by the GoI,” TNR said.
According to TNR, recognising the Naga flag should be a way of honouring Naga integration, which, it said the Naga negotiators have agreed to pursue later. “It will also realise the ‘special arrangement’ for the Nagas that has been promised at the highest level of the GoI,” TNR maintained.
It asserted that a meeting point on the unresolved flag and constitution should be arrived at without further delay.
TNR stated that long years of investing in the peace process for an honourable solution by the Naga people should be respected by both Delhi and NPGs.
It said Naga people have put their trust on the negotiators and the peace process with high hope of a new era ushering in that was defined by peaceful co-existence. “Unfortunately, uncertainty continues to loom large over the Naga issue and it is the responsibility of the negotiators to ensure that hope does not turn into despair,” TNR underlined.