Affirming that sovereignty was an inherent right of every people, the NSCN (I-M) Thursday said the Naga people were also a sovereign people by right. Delivering speech on the occasion of 40th NSCN Day, the steering committee convener Rh. Raising said sovereignty was not something to be borrowed from or granted by others. He maintained that the Nagas must be able to exercise their sovereign rights independent of others so they could grow into the “fullest human size and develop materially in all fields.” Raising said the NSCN cannot think of “a developed Nagalim without a sovereign state”, adding that sovereign state was “a giant machine that can make and unmake things except man.” (Full text on p-6)