The NSCN-IM in a statement said that it was a “historic moment” on Friday when nearly 7,000 Naga national workers from 16 regions of Nagaland, gathered at Agri Expo in Dimapur, under the agenda, “Reaffirming of One people, one nation”.
“This coordination meeting of the Naga national workers from Nagaland was necessitated as many divisive elements and groups are ‘mouth-louding’ for Naga solution only for Nagaland state and ready to forego the Naga National Flag and Constitution in the name of Naga solution,” it said.
The Naga group said that this is tantamount to selling out the Naga national identity “as stoutly defended by our forefathers”.
Significantly, this is against the national principle of “one people one nation” that was laid down by our great Naga freedom fighters, they said.
The NSCN-IM said that “in the background of this treacherous turn of development, Naga national workers from Nagaland were compelled to deliberate on the situation in order to save the Naga nation”.
The statement mentioned that NSCN Chairman Ino. Q. Tuccu in his speech said: “Nagas are one wherever they are, one common goal, one issue.”
He also made a pointed response to the cry of the public for the delay of the Naga solution. “We cannot give away our rights for the sake of the Naga solution and we can never compromise the Nagas’ rights.”
The Naga groups as part of their pressure tactics hoisted the “Naga national flag” and held a large number of programmes in Nagaland and in many villages in the Naga dominated areas of Manipur to celebrate the “Naga Independence Day” on August 14, a day before India’s Independence Day.
The Naga groups dominated by the NSCN-IM, celebrating the August 14 events in a big way once again demonstrated that there would be no solution to the Naga issue without a separate flag and Constitution.
Since 1997, the government has held more than 85 rounds of negotiations with the NSCN-IM and other Naga groups.
However, the NSCN-IM’s insistence on a separate Naga flag and Constitution have become big hurdles.
The former government interlocutor and then Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi, who is now holding the gubernatorial post in Tamil Nadu, had rejected these demands on a number of occasions.