From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Sixty-four years after it had declared independence from British India, Naga rebel group, National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) has slammed former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the Naga crisis.
“Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru held divergent views on the Naga political problem. While Gandhi believed Nagas had the right to be independent Nehru wanted to crush them by force,” said NSCN (I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah at Camp Hebron, the outfit’s peace-time headquarters near Dimapur, Nagaland’s commercial hub 75 km west of capital Kohima.
Muivah was addressing cadres on the 65th ‘Naga Independence Day’ on Sunday.
Nagas had on August 14, 1947 declared independence from British India. Many have resented the ‘annexation’ by ‘colonial India’ days later. “The political right of the Nagas was fully acknowledged by Gandhi,” said the NSCN (I-M) general secretary. “But things started to change soon as Nehru did not exercise wisdom and patience and wanted to crush the Nagas’ aspiration by force. Nehru treated the Naga issue in a despicable manner.”
“Nehru never considered that the Nagas had a separate history and political rights. His stand was to crush the Nagas but he was proved wrong with the Nagas standing undefeated even after more than 60 years,” Muivah said.
He added that the Naga problem began to be considered in a welcome manner only after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power and hoped that the ongoing peace talks with New Delhi would yield a favourable result for the Nagas.
The NSCN (I-M) had declared ceasefire in July 1997 after two decades of a armed separatist revolution with Indian armed forces. Rival rebel outfit NSCN (Khaplang) — it split earlier this year after the ‘ejection’ of chairman SS Khaplang — too called truce in 2001.
