I have no doubt that the very mention of these entities is not going to go well with many people. But whether we like it or not, we the Nagas deserve a common platform at different levels specially in difficult times like we are facing today. Every sensible person would have observed that during the ULB crises there was a total leadership vacuum. In fact, there was seemingly no credible organisation or authority to give unbiased counsel and direction when our people needed it most. On the hindsight If we had one, may be the ugly incidents which happened could have been avoided. In absence of any other alternative, the NBCC did what was right at that time but it got its finger burnt in the first attempt. The sad thing is that we have systematically undermined the authority of every credible organisation we have. We have almost rendered them redundant by forming parallel organisations and dissociation. Today Naga hoho and NSF are not what they were 15 or 20 years back. It is true that these institutions have failed to live up to our expectation. But everybody would agree that not having them is the solution either. It may be politically wrong but today in absence of credible institutions, Nagas are often led by the piece meal organisations which are formed in a hustle and this trend doesn’t auger well for an evolving society like ours. Let’s understand that good leadership goes far beyond the ability of organising a successful bandh or protest. Any people’s movement pertaining to our future need to be led by men of wisdom and repute. We still have the rudimentary structure even though there are missing links but we can restore them and bring back all Naga tribes to the same platform again. At present Naga Hoho plays both the role of interstates as well as for the state of Nagaland. This mixing of role has created lot of problems and it is not desirable in the changed situation as every state has its own problems and priorities. I think we can solve this problem if we revamp our organisation to 3 tier system instead of 2 as it is now as below -: (Nomenclature for illustration only)
1. International/interstate level - A Pan Naga hoho which covers all Naga inhabited areas. The State level hohos will be affiliated to it.
2. State level - Nagas in each state will have a dedicated organisation comprised of different tribal organisations in that state in the line of UNC in Manipur. This is the missing link now in Nagaland and we need to fill this gap without delay. We may name it Naga people hoho Nagaland or whatever. All the Naga tribal hohos/organisations in the state will be affiliated to it
3. Regional/Tribal level -Thiscomprises of the existing recognised Naga tribes. All the tribal hohos/organisations will b directly affiliated to state level Naga people hoho Nagaland.There are already some groupings of tribes like ENPO, CNTC etc. and the status of this zonal organisations can be deliberated. NSFand NMA can also be revamped in the same manner.
We should stop blaming each other for the ills that is afflicting our apex organisations because that is our own making. The need of the hour is to unite all the tribes and bring them under one umbrella. I believe we can still do it by restructuring the existing organisations to the need of the present time instead of forming parallel ones. In spite of the good intention of JCC and NTAC to initiate it, I don’t believe that they are the right or competent forum as they cannot go beyond their mandated role. Moreover, this is a serious issue and need to be worked out with cool heads and not in a supercharged atmosphere. May be, the present Naga hoho should start the process by consulting the ENPO,CNTC, NTC and all tribal organisations in the states.
