Kohima players banking on 'Himanta factor' still feel happy
New Delhi
Land is sacred in Nagaland like in any agrarian and traditional society.
One Pakistani official a few years back told me, "It astonishes many in Pakistan that Indians still consider partition as an assault on their Mother".
Does this make a democratic India 'different' from Islamic Pakistan?
The locals-outsiders is a long lasting menace in northeast and also in Nagaland.
Some of us grew up seeing the 'intolerance' against and 'humiliation' of 'plain manu' in Nagaland, Dwakher in Meghalaya and Vai Naupang in Mizoram.
In Tripura, the story sees another twist - where tribals have been
outnumbered. Assam's agony is well known.
But now in Nagaland, the Senior Citizens Association of Nagaland (SCAN) has lambasted the inaction of the State Government for failing to protect the Intangki National Park from being fully occupied by cadres of NSCN (IM).
The same state government now has the 'nationalists' BJP in power since 2018.
The latest round of 'revelation' is from an RTI response and hence things appear more serious.
In 2003, Congress party headed by S C Jamir lost the polls perhaps more for the booklet 'Bedrock of Naga Society' published on June 19, 2000.
Once the booklet was published with a Foreword from S C Jamir that some readers have come up with "juvenile and jaundiced conclusions", the Congress lost control of things.
In 2022, the issue will be more serious. The 'land' is lost to 'outsider Nagas' from the state of Manipur.
This issue was flagged off earlier too. The SCAN has a point in articulating that - Nagaland cannot "whimsically" be converted into make-believe “Naga Nation” without integration for all Nagas from everywhere to share equal rights with the Nagas of Nagaland.
NDPP spin masters may ask - why a non-Naga is talking about these?
Well, even if emotion has no place, there is something called tax-payers' money !
Some political parties are neither nationalists BJP or Congress nor 'committed regionalists' or fighting cocks, NPF.
In terms of Naga peace talks, sovereignty and integration stand rejected by the Government of India.
Key players in Kohima banking on the 'Himanta Biswa factor' might still feel happy.
Land is strictly a state subject and here the state seems to have failed. It is criminal negligence.
This is a season to stop writing, or one could be picked up ? Mr Chingwang, are you listening ?
Some press statements sound more like 'love letters' of the 1990s.
I told a Delhi-based state government functionary, journalists may stop covering Nagaland.
Back to 'bedrock' and more sincere issues. On Nov 30, 2000, the NSF observed a day of mourning by making
a bonfire of the Congress publication - 'Bedrock of Naga Society'.
Now that news came from Intangki, how would the Naga civil society react now in 2022?
Khekiye Sema, ex-IAS
"....it is not the responsibility of the State of Nagaland (the NDPP-BJP-NPG regime) to promote mere population integration without land and rehabilitate our national workers belonging to other states with our aforesaid Intangki National Park," says SCAN.
The NNPG said in May this year -- Nagaland today is a land where tenants "dream to be landlords"
through heckling and brutalizing the "owners" with Integration, flag, constitution, Pan Naga Hoho etc.
A retired IAS officer K K Sema, also spokesman SCAN, wrote in a newspaper article that an outfit is "trying to decide the fate of the Nagas of Nagaland without letting us know exactly what our future is going to look like".
The Kolkata 'mishti doi' is still in debate.
Simplicity and to trust a fellow brethren from Arunachal Pradesh or Manipur and also reposing faith in any elected government is also no offence.
But it is also important to note that Patience and Accommodating nature for a large cause could be easily taken for weakness and cowardice.
Provocation beyond a point always results in blowback. But, Rip Van Winkle is never alone in this world.
ends
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| Blogger in Kohima |
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