Guwahati: After civil society initiatives, the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has started mounting pressure for an early solution to the ongoing Naga peace talks by writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an ‘honourable political solution’ to the political issue.
The NSF, in a detailed letter to the prime minister, has made an appeal to usher in an ‘era of peace’ through a political solution that defines and recognises the identity of the Naga people.
“We believe that the right time has come for the government to recognise and materialise Nagas’ desire and the right to live together under one political roof,” the NSF stated.
The letter signed by NSF president Ninoto Awomi and general secretary Liremo R. Kikon has also drawn the prime minister’s attention to the Naga people’s unique history and the solution that can be put forth based on it.
According to the NSF, Nagaland, which it defines as Nagalaim, was placed within the Indian Union neither by conquest nor by the consent of the Naga people, unlike the then princely states, which agreed to form the Indian Union.
“The Naga leaders never agreed to be a part of India. They neither signed the instrument of accession nor did they gratify the Indian Independence Act 1947. This is the unique history of the Nagas and it has been acknowledged by the government of India,” the NSF pointed out.
The NSF also pleaded not to compare or subject the Naga issue to any other political issue in the country, and even abroad.
“Since time immemorial, each individual Naga village was a sovereign republic. No invading forces or kin could exert their dominance over the entire stretch of Naga territory.
Even the Britishers, post-1885, had adapted the policy of non-interference in the Naga Hills after they overran Assam. On January 10, 1929, the Naga Club, on behalf of the Naga people, submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission that the Nagas would not want to be part of independent India,” the NSF, while referring to and reminding the government of the unique history of Nagaland, said.
