Fishing in troubled waters is often a good strategy for insurgents.
In quite an unexpected line, the NSCN-IM (Eastern Flank) has called for effective implementation of the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition law in the state and said the recent hooch tragedy in Mokokchung "demand justice" and adequate "actions".
"The death demand justice. The living demands action. Let us not fail them both," it said in a statement.
The provincial government of the splinter group - which is lately often seen embarrassing the Hebron leadership - also directed its ire against the state government headed by chief minister Neiphiu Rio.
It said the "blind eye" turned by the Nagaland Govt on the tragedy "will not be acceptable".
"A body vested with such authority and power; if it takes no action must itself be held questionable. Indifference at such a moment is not neutrality, it is complicity," the statement runs. The Eastern Flank also says:
"This tragedy did not emerge from nothing. It was seeded, nurtured and allowed to flourish in the shadows of our own law. Certain elements, acting with cold intent have weaponised the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition Act of 1989 - a law born of our collective moral conviction".
It said the law has been turned into "an instrument of quiet slaughter. Through adulterated and spurious liquor, they are killing our people silently day by day in our towns and villages. This is not accident. This is design".
The statement needs threadbare scrutiny and analysts in Delhi and northeast have "reported back" to the central government that the "EF will be making efforts to capitalise on the hooch tragedy to corner its rivals and detractors". However, there is a word of caution that in the initial period - the ultra faction
"may undertake some controlled actions against illicit liquor cartel and individuals".
In the late 1980s and 1990 - in neighbouring Assam - the ULFA too experimented this route and created an image of new Robinhood in the rural parts of the state.
The EF may want to "display collusion" and resultant "inaction" by the state government authorities and the NSCN-IM (Hebron).
It is understood that key political elements are in the liquor business in Nagaland operating even in parts of Assam. It is allegedly run in a syndicate form. On this context comes the statement which also says:
"The silence of institutions that ought to thunder in moral courage is deafening".
Almost opening a new strategic approach for 'deeper penetration' in the state -- the group said: "The Nagaland Baptist Church Council -which had wholly advocated for prohibition must not remain silent while our people perish.
"We do not condemn the NBCC - we call upon it to awaken. Likewise, the Naga civil society cannot remain idle. If prohibition is to be truly enforced, we must stand together as one people, one voice and one conscience".
The refrain amongst some agencies is that in days and weeks to come, the Eastern Flank (at present operating mostly from Myanmar hideout) may also utilise social media to display alleged "nexus and business interests plus corruption" between state administration players and some key elements in the Hebron camp.
In other words - the apprehension is that the influential religious bodies in local levels and also at the macro level and some civil society organisations may be candidly used for bringing the Eastern Flank into limelight.
At least 19 people have died in two suspected spurious-liquor incidents in Nagaland September with methanol detected in liquor samples linked to the earlier deaths in Tuensang and eight people later expired in a separate cluster in Mokokchung.
'Eastern Mirror' newspaper reported that in Mokokchung, six of the eight deaths were in Mangkolemba sub-division and two from the Mokokchung Police Station-II area.
ends
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