The Naga Studentsโ Federation (NSF) has accused Nagaland Governor RN Ravi and Centreโs interlocutor for Naga talks of distorting the โhistorical truthโ of the Nagas.
Quoting RN Raviโs Independence Day message, the federation on Wednesday said, โIn the autumn of their rule, when the British conspired to partition India and give away Northeast India to Pakistan, the leaders of Naga Hills stood in solidarity with the rest of the country and thwarted the diabolical colonial conspiracy.โ
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โNaga leaders played significant roles in the constitutional evolution of India,โ the Naga Studentsโ Federation said in a release issued by its media cell.
The studentsโ body said โhis continued glorification of the Naga Peopleโs Convention and the 16-Point charter of demands which had long been disowned by the Naga people through his various acts of patronizing its founders and leaders is another matter of great concern to the Naga youths and studentsโ.
Stating that the Naga youths and students are fed up with Raviโs rhetoric with the intent to divide the Naga people, the NSF said his โclaimsโ and โsuccessive misadventuresโ only reveal his shallow understanding of the Naga history and also โthe narrow walls within which he has been trying to solve the vexed Indo-Naga political issueโ.
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โIt undermines and belittles the very people he has been assigned to have a political dialogue in order to pave the way for lasting peace and tranquillity all over the Naga homeland,โ it stated.
The federation reiterated that โwith such a divisive mind at the helm of affairs from the Indian side in the political negotiation, the current peace process becomes doubtful to be enduringโ.
It said the Naga people declared their independence on August 14, 1947, and the same was ratified through a Naga national plebiscite in 1951.
โIt is historically clear that the Naga homeland came to be a part of the existing Indian Union neither by consent nor by conquest. The Naga peopleโs assertion for self-determination is in line with the inherent ethos, values and customary systems of the Naga society and not otherwise,โ it stated.
According to the federation, the Government of Indiaโs policies and attempts to muzzle the voices of Naga people through militarisation are causing much harm to the Naga society.
It appealed to Ravi to refrain from furthering the old โcarrot and stickโ policy and adopt a more pragmatic approach in order to ensure that the interests of the two entities are upheld through the political solution.