Dimapur: Member of ‘collective leadership’ cum care-taker of ‘ministry of Kilo (Home) affairs’ of the NSCN-IM, Rh. Raising said today that the “crux of the Indo-Naga problem is because of the Government of India not dealing with the issue in the manner that demands political solution”.
Rh. Raising then said that Nagas are made to live with shame and humiliation in their divided land. He also said that Nagas must live together. “We must work together for our common cause. And therefore, integration of all Naga ancestral domains under one political roof is a must, not a choice,” he stated.
The NSCN-IM leader then said, “It is said and we have to repeat that flag and constitution are ingredients of the recognized sovereignty and unique history of the Nagas”. He added that flag and constitution cannot exist apart from the Naga people. He further added that flag and constitution are symbols of “our identity and hallmarks of our nationhood”.
In an apparent effort to justify the position and stand of the NSCN-IM, Rh. Raising said that there is no early solution or delayed solution as some people talk of. “All solutions are naturally principle-based. The past agreements or accords could not bring solution in our land because they were not principle-based. Nagas should not repeat the past mistakes,” the NSCN-IM leader added.
This statement of Rh. Raising came, as the NSCN-IM leader said, “in view of the unrelenting attack on the Naga national political issue by some people from different quarters”. He added that the “National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) has to state its position loud and clear to the people”.
The NSCN-IM leader then said that every sensible Naga, even friends and foes, understood that the case of the Nagas is a national resistance movement against the aggressor-states. He also said that it is neither a secessionist movement nor a domestic problem of India “as wantonly propagated by the aggressors”. According to him, a wrong view comes from a wrong perspective. Seeking political solution from the Indian constitutional perspective is tantamount to giving a wrong treatment to a patient, he also said. “Solution of the problem will come only when it is viewed from the correct perspective. The crux of the Indo-Naga problem is Government of India not dealing with the issue in the manner that demands political solution,” Rh. Raising added.
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The statement then said that, as people and their land are inseparable from each other, so people and their rights, their identity, their culture, their history, politics and religion are also inseparably interwoven. “We are created Nagas with Naga materials by God, the Creator of heaven and earth and that we must live as Nagas, speak as Nagas, act as Nagas and die as Nagas. Recognize it or not by the aggressors, Nagas are also a nation among nations. The Naga nation is our identity and our belongingness and no one should doubt about it,” the NSCN-IM leader also stated.
According to Rh. Raising, the accepted truth is that all men and women are born free and no one is born slave. He also said that slavery is but the creation of man. However, freedom is not the end of the matter; freedom to choose life or death, God or Baal is the heart of the matter and the end of the matter, he further said. “Thus said the Lord God of the Hebrews, ‘Let my people go, that they may serve me”. ( Exodus: 9:1). The NSCN-IM leader also said that the Israelites led by Moses chose God, the Author of life. Those who chose God chose life and freedom. But those who chose Baal looked back to the accursed world of slavery in Egypt and perished, Rh. Raising added.
The NSCN-IM leader then said that the Nagas begun their resistance movement from their unshakable rock of national principle and that it will conclude there. Principle is seed, he further said. “As all trees comes from the seeds, so all nation-states come from their national principles. This takes us to the point that Naga state should come from the Naga principle,” he also stated.
The NSCN-IM then stated that some other people talk of development of “our land by others”. He added, “No doubt, we NSCN are also for development, but we are for power to develop our land by ourselves. NSCN focuses on power to make money for development. Politics makes development; politics makes money”.
According to him, there are also people who are fond of talking high of colonial power who they call high command. “But politics of the NSCN is to decide the future of the Nagas by the Nagas themselves. Nagas are the master of their world,” he stated.
Rh. Raising then said, “In the matter of solution, they also say ‘something is better than nothing.’ For NSCN any agreement small or big is considerable if it is transitional to the final goal, otherwise no accord or agreement is far better than any accord of treason”.
On the question of sovereignty, Rh. Raising said, “We have to tell the people that sovereignty does not exist outside the people, it is with the people. “It is the soul of our nationhood. The principle of democracy says ‘sovereignty is with the people.’ It is one of the main agreed points of the Framework Agreement,” he added.
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According to the NSCN-IM leader, Nagas are the worst victims of ‘divide and rule policy’, ‘define and rule policy’ of the aggressors. “We are divided and placed in different administrative units so that we are reduced to a negligible minority and colonized. We have suffered ruthless oppressions in the hands of the colonial power and their agents for decades. We Nagas fight back the aggressors because we don’t want to die. We must live and are determined to live to fulfill our mission on earth,” he stated. According to Rh. Raising, the Naga people know too well that the present Nagaland state is political bait, not manna. “We Nagas are made to live with shame and humiliation in our divided land. We must live together; we must work together for our common cause. And therefore, integration of all Naga ancestral domains under one political roof is a must, not a choice,” he added.
The NSCN-IM leader then stated that a political organization or a political party or a political leadership may be mandated by a people to fight for their cause or advocate for their cause. “But no organization or party or leadership in history is ever mandated by the people to sell out the right of the people,” he also said. Rh. Raising added that treason is the work of traitors and traitors don’t represent the people and issue of the people. “Traitor and collaborator are two faces of the same coin,” he added.
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