Indo-Naga issue not internal political problem; case of aggression on Nagaland by India, says Naga National Council

Dimapur, Dec. 6 (EMN): The Naga National Council (NNC) has said that the Indo-Naga issue has always been viewed as an internal problem of India, and, therefore, has branded the Nagas in accordance with the changing international situations and narratives by India.

“These various brands of names include ‘hostiles’, ‘rebels’, ‘undergrounds’, ‘insurgents’. Likewise, the Indo-Naga issue has been termed as ‘a socio-economic problem’, ‘insurgency problem’, ‘political problem’ etc,” a statement from NNC said on Tuesday.

NNC said this has successfully paved the way for India to continue her hold on Nagaland by “creating a puppet state through blackmail “.

“This subterfuge has given the illusion that the Nagas want to secede from India, while she herself pose as a guardian and mother of democracy,” it read.

NNC stated that the Indo-Naga issue was not an internal political problem of India, but a case of aggression on Nagaland by India.

“It is a bilateral issue as has been historically proven through historic events in the period of decolonisation.

“The Nagas had no alternative but to fight for the defense of their country. This fight for a nation’s survival has been insidiously termed as a political problem of India. Meanwhile, India also instigated erstwhile Burma, with whom the Nagas had good relations, to fight against our very being. In the case of Naga- Burmese relations neither the Nagas nor the Burmese had any animosity towards one another and lived as good neighbours, considering that the Nagas had not been part of the Panglong Agreement of 1947 in Burma. But with the instigation by India under Indira Gandhi’s Prime Ministership in the 1960s and 1970s Burma rose against the eastern Nagas.

“Sandwiched between two powerful nations, the Nagas had to seek outside help in which only China responded, while India blamed China of fomenting dissension as if the Nagas were part of India,” read the statement.

It said that Nagas do not want to see the country turned into a battlefield, “but India has failed to honour our neighbourly relations by invading US”.

“Today, US and India has the temerity to conduct military exercises near the sensitive Line of Actual Control (LAC) violating Sino-India agreements which does not bode well for our future as neighbouring nations as any Tom, Dick and Harry can pick a side to fight with,” it said.

NNC said Nagas have already suffered enough at the hands of “our occupiers”, the most recent being the Oting killings where 14 innocent civilians were “mercilessly murdered at the hands of an elite unit of the Army”.

“Nagaland has long been used as a training ground for the Indian Army and our citizens mere targets for their practice. We cannot afford to digress from the issue at hand which is to survive and thrive as a nation that we are.

“As for the Myanmarese occupied territories of Nagaland, it must be made clear that the Nagas never partook in the Panglong Agreement of 1947 to be part of the Burmese Union. Hence our territories are to be restored to us honourably as also India should, by the withdrawal of all occupational forces of both countries,” it said.

“We believe that the three nations surrounding Nagaland will have the wisdom and decency to take things into perspective to rectify past mistakes and to maintain peaceful neighbourly relations while honouring us as your friendly and audacious independent neighbor,” it added.