The Naga Hoho has stated that the Government of India’s failure to achieve a final settlement of the Indo-Naga conflict has created a serious rift due to conflicting interests within the Naga people.
In a press release, the Naga Hoho stated that the unnaturally protracted “Political Talks” has created a schism between the idealist and the existential, the older and the younger generation along with the usual East-West-North-South divide.
“This schism is unravelling the fabric of the Naga family thread by thread and threatens to lay us morally and politically threadbare unless we realise that there are far better ways to address our differences than by being blinded by self-righteousness and self-interest and weakening the unity of the people,” it said.
“As long as we, the Nagas, fail to present a united front with a strong message to our political adversaries, the Government of India will only be too pleased to maintain the current political status-quo in one guise or another, continuing to leave us to languish in a political limbo,” the Naga Hoho added.
“Much as we might dislike to admit it, the onus for the settlement of the political talks lies with us, the Nagas as much as it lies with the Government of India,” it said.
The Naga Hoho expressed optimism that the consultative meeting to deliberate on the Naga Political Issue that was convened by the Government of Nagaland wouldd facilitate to bring the Indo-Naga political talks to the forefront again after being relegated to the back-burner for quite some time.
It also hoped that the various Naga Tribal Hohos and Civil Society organisations participating in the said meeting bear in mind that any settlement that is not mutually agreed, inclusive and honourable from the Naga Peoples’ standpoint would only bring more discord and conflict within the Naga family.
Naga Hoho opposes “Gau Mahasaba”
Further, the Naga Hoho said it takes strong exception to the planned “Gau Mahasaba” in Kohima on 28 September 2024 as part of a nationwide “Gau Dhwaj Sthapana Bharat Yatra by a certain Hindu Organisation.” In this context, the NH lauded the Cabinet decision of the Government of Nagaland to deny permission to hold the said Yatra.
In the Naga custom and tradition, Naga Hoho said, “a cow is a livestock that is reared to provide us with meat and milk and assist us in our field works. For the Nagas, cows will be continued to be reared to provide us with the same provisions.”
Naga Hoho said that the organisation planning the Yatra is well aware of the fact that there will be opposition to the Yatra in other regions too, not just Nagas, where cows are used as livestock.
“Such blatant disregard for the rights, traditions, customs and religion of other people may be seen as an effort to incite unrest and conflict along religious and communal lines or as an effort to impose religious and cultural practices of the majority upon the minority and must be condemned by every discerning citizen of India, and not just the affected community,” it added.