Untying the Naga knot: Flagging the key issues

After 22 straight years of negotiations, the usually secretive Naga rebel group, the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, or NSCN(I-M), has publicly stated that the Government of India was “going slow” in taking a stand on “core issues”, which is delaying a possible resolution of the seven-decade-old Naga problem. The NSCN(I-M) identified the “core issues” to be that of a separate “flag” for the Nagas and a “constitution”. That it decided to disclose this in a press communiqué, which also said there was no agreement on its demand for a separate Naga flag and constitution between them and the government indicates the importance the outfit attaches to these “core issues”. It said: “Without these two core issues solved, any solution would be far from honourable because Nagas’ pride and identity is deeply entrenched here.”

Before issuing this rare statement on the negotiations that are on since 1997, NSCN(I-M) chairman Q. Tuccu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating their views on these “core issues”. Besides, the rebel group also lamented that the Naga accord had not yet been reached four years after a “Framework Agreement” was signed by the two sides in presence of Prime Minister Modi and then Union home minister Rajnath Singh on August 3, 2015. This agreement was supposed to form the basis of the final accord that would honour the “uniqueness of Naga history”.

We shall briefly talk about why the Nagas insist on the “uniqueness” of their history, but the timing of the NSCN(I-M)’s letter to Prime Minister Modi reiterating its demand for a separate “Naga flag” and a “constitution” is significant. It is now obvious that the NSCN(I-M) or for that matter seven other Naga rebel outfits which are negotiating with New Delhi, as two different groups (NSCN(I-M) on its own and the seven other groups together, are apprehensive after the Modi government scrapped Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir, taking away the special rights that the state had enjoyed all these years. The Kashmiris were granted a separate flag and a constitution under Article 370, but do not enjoy this special status any more after the special provisions have been abrogated.

It all began in 1929 when a 20-member Naga delegation petitioned the Simon Commission that was on a visit to understand the system of governance and examine the education scenario. The Nagas, under the banner of the Naga Club, argued before the representatives of the British government that they were fine under the British but should be “left alone” to determine their future in case there was to be any transfer of power to the Indian leadership. Besides, the Naga leadership has always been referring to a meeting with Mahatma Gandhi during the time of India’s Independence where he (Gandhi) was supposed to have told them that “the Nagas have every right to be independent”. The Nagas’ argument, in simple terms, is that they were never subjugated by any of India’s ruling dynasties and therefore they should have been left alone after the British left and not merged as part of the Indian Union.

This is the background in which groups like the NSCN(I-M), and the Naga National Council of Angami Zapu Phizo before that, have been pressing for a separate Naga homeland outside India. Once the negotiations began in 1997, the idea of a separate homeland outside India got transformed into the unification of all Naga areas in the Northeast to be clubbed under a single administrative umbrella. That hit roadblocks after the states adjoining Nagaland opposed any transfer of territory or any change in the present geographical boundary of the states in the region. The Naga rebel groups have not given up their “Nagalim”, or the unified Naga areas’ demand, but have been making progress with other unique proposals, including symbolic ones like a separate “Naga flag” and a constitution. One hears that the government could even come up with a boundary-less administrative super-structure for the Nagas so that such a body could look after the Naga interests in the entire region.

NSCN(I-M) top guns like Mr Muivah generally operate out of New Delhi these days because of the negotiations, but are currently at the group’s makeshift headquarters called “Camp Hebron”, near Nagaland’s commercial hub of Dimapur. Their visit to Nagaland itself is significant in view of government peace interlocutor and newly-appointed Nagaland governor R.N. Ravi’s statement that he has been given a mandate by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to try and resolve the Naga issue within three months. In fact, the Central leaders have been saying for some time now that the Naga peace process is at an “advanced stage”. The question, therefore, arises: are Mr Muivah and his colleagues in Nagaland to have their last round of consultations before the Naga accord is reached.

The Modi government’s decision to abrogate Articles 370 and 35A (that had empowered J&K to define its “permanent residents”) has come as a setback to Naga aspirations, the only silver lining being home minister Amit Shah’s categorical statement in Parliament that the Centre would not tinker with Article 371 in force in various forms in Nagaland and other northeastern states. In fact, Mr Ravi, who continues as the Naga peace interlocutor, had also wasted no time to state that there was no danger to Article 371A in Nagaland. Actually, Nagaland enjoys the provisions of Article 371A that prevents Parliament from enacting any laws that could alter the religious or social practices of the Nagas, Naga customary law and procedure, the administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law, and among others, ownership and transfer of land and its resources. For all of these to be modified, the Nagaland Assembly must decide by passing a resolution.

All of a sudden, we have been presented with a scenario where the government could concede the demand for a separate flag and a constitution for a people in one part of the country soon after the same were made redundant in another part. But yes, the situation in Nagaland and Kashmir cannot be compared in any way, and this alone could form the basis of New Delhi conceding symbolic things like a flag, which of course carries unimaginable sentimental value among the Nagas. The bottomline is simple: Just wait and watch!

The writer, a political commentator based in Guwahati, is editor-in-chief of Northeast Live, the region’s only English and Hindi satellite news channel. The views expressed here are his own.