The NSCN (IM) on Monday hit out at Nagaland Governor RN Ravi over his statement that India as a nation should have a sovereign territory, one Constitution and one national flag.
Reacting to the Governor’s statement, the outfit advised RN Ravi not to bite off more than he can chew as far as the Indo-Naga issue is concerned.
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“Will RN Ravi, the interlocutor of the Government of India to the Naga peace talks, speak in the same bipolar language as this RN Ravi, the governor of Nagaland state, does,” the NSCN asked.
Also read: No separate flag and Constitution for Nagaland, says Governor RN Ravi
It went on to say that it cannot agree more with Ravi’s statement on the Constitution and flag.
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“Indeed, in the same breath Nagaland/Nagalim too must have sovereign territory, one constitution and one national flag within which the two must share sovereign powers and coexist peacefully as two entities as agreed upon in the Framework Agreement where he himself is a signatory,” the outfit said in a release.
The NSCN’s reaction follows Ravi’s message on the occasion of 58th Statehood Day of Nagaland that the Government of India is absolutely clear that there is and there shall be only one national flag and Constitution in India.
“Anyone talking anything contrary is peddling preposterous lies. They are trying to confuse and mislead the people,” he said.
The NSCN said any person on Earth that runs the blood of the Nagas will certainly have been provoked by the “irresponsible statement” made by Ravi on the anniversary of Nagaland’s 58th Statehood Day.
It said Ravi’s statement reminds the Naga people of how under the leadership of AZ Phizo the war of resistance of the Nagas against the “Indian colonialists” were “manipulated” by the Intelligence Bureau officials “who roped in some of the treacherous Naga individuals, mostly Indian government employees, that formed a superfluous body called the Naga People’s Convention (NPC)”.
It said the NPC came out of nowhere and signed the 16-Point Agreement where the Naga solution was hijacked and a state under the Indian Constitution was accepted giving a foothold to the Indian government to claim that from thence the Nagas were a part of India.
“This was nothing less than a calculated plan of the Indian government and back stabbing the leadership of AZ Phizo and the Naga national movement through NPC.”
“Thus, the untold sufferings of the Nagas, loss of lives, properties and dignity have been reduced to nothingness,” the NSCN said.
It added Phizo and the Naga nationalists and the entire Naga people instantly condemned and rejected the NPC and the 16-Point Agreement.
The NSCN said the statement of Ravi clearly exposed that another NPC is in the making.
“His assertion that some of the civil societies under his payroll are the main stakeholders on the Indo-Naga Issue and therefore their decision must be supreme is farce,” it stated.
“This is the same RN Ravi who was a signatory to the 2015 Framework Agreement signed between the Government of India and the NSCN representing the Naga people and also signed with the 7 NNPGs in 2017,” it said.
The NSCN said while the Government of India and the Naga people are fully committed to resolving the issue through peaceful means which is at its concluding stage.
But once more the ex-IB official, Ravi, is planning to hijack the more than seven decades of war and 23 years of peace talks in the same style of the NPC, it alleged.
The NSCN also accused Ravi of attempting to murder the future of the Nagas and the vital national interest of India.
“Nagas must wake up and should not allow us to be fooled twice with the same trick,” the outfit stated.
The outfit recalled that on November 22, 1948, Phizo wrote to C. Raja Gopalachari, the then Governor General of India: “I am certain about one thing, my turbulent Naga people cannot be frightened into submission.”
“The same is gently reminded to Ravi today that we are undeterred by your threat,” it said.