Nirendra Dev
(The following is a contributed interview submitted by Nirendra Dev. The views expressed are those of the interviewee)
What’s going in and around Nagaland?
One leader, after talking for 28 years, says violence is the best or the only path.
One leader suddenly pushes ultra-regionalism, and yet BJP is silent.
One analysis is quite credible… Do Nagas either have to agree for a Solution or have to surrender?
Imkong Imchen: Like all journalists – and you too – always. You are only partly right. I do not mind; you are in the business of half-truth. I do not agree with the word surrender. I told many Naga friends also – to my understanding, speaking the bitter truth is never surrendering to anything or anybody.
It is simply because truth never surrenders. Truth shall stand as truth and shall always be the winner because of the simple reason – it is the truth. What leader A says or what leader B does or does not do is immaterial.
Thanks for a good beginning. My interview will be great. I could provoke a cool man like you… Many years back, people said Imchen is the only young man who knows when to get angry. But it’s a fact Nagaland is passing through a bad phase… we may say at least a very challenging phase?
Imkong Imchen: I may strongly differ with you. I told some of my friends in Nagaland too – please don’t announce your judgement before the case is tried. Okay, it is legitimate to ask – how long are Nagas prepared to talk about Naga sovereignty? For how many centuries? But we also have to answer – how will 28 or 280 factions of Naga ‘national workers’ extort us?
One thing I keep saying – whether I am angry or not (pauses and then laughs mildly) – for how many Naga generations now have some people wanted to mislead and betray our own Naga people in the name of sovereignty?
My point is simple and slow – all of you in the media too will also appreciate that sovereignty or whatever people want to call it… Please don’t think that you are the only people who can arbitrate or navigate Naga politics.
Okay; you are not at all angry?
Imkong Imchen: (Mildly laughs again) See, to me there are other people also who understand Naga society and its dynamics, and they do so more in detail and in rationality – maybe far above some people. But they are keeping silent only for the sake of keeping silent. What is important is — let us be rational and reasonable in our whole approach.
There are issues like Naga integration or Greater Lim?
Imkong Imchen: Integration of all Naga inhabitants or Naga contiguous areas, including the Nagas of Myanmar, means… it’s simply impossible. I will stress – impossible is a word which means “not possible”, Ketia bhi na hobo.
Therefore, I shall call these two – ‘Nagaland inhabitants’ and ‘contiguous areas’ – misnomers. Where the idea came from is also a puzzle! Our Naga forefathers were emotional but very practical.
But something even the media has not been able to picture properly – there are so-called Naga intellectual nationalists who intentionally mislead us by writing so many English syllables, exhibiting their self-status. They may be doing so at the instance of Indian intellectuals or Chinese or Americans… I do not know. I need not know.
But the real agenda lies somewhere – which is also “not possible”. Hence they resort to threatening others with guns. And you want me to call it fair play?
If things are so clear — black and white — people must be ready for the next step. What’s that?
Imkong Imchen: A good question, but in a very lazy and casual manner. Are you asking me seriously? Then I will say — social change is a theoretical concept for every dimension of life in this world. Time is a very important factor — this cannot be arrested by humans because it is a natural process. So also is Naga politics.
Let’s make ourselves free from such matters unnecessarily. Be simple, be truthful, and march ahead. But we are not moving for the last 28 years. A boy born in 1997 is already bored with his life. He has completed his studies, he has fought with his mother, and he has loved and quarreled with his girlfriends. The world has moved on. India has moved on as a country. Under PM Narendra Modi, we have done a lot in the last 11 years. But we Nagas are stuck with the jargon and the politics of yesterday.
That means you are dangerously frank today?
Imkong Imchen: (Mildly laughs) Okay… if you say so. I may be over-frank or dangerously frank, but I am compelled to state it this way as a true Naga patriot – and I don’t think I will change my position in any given future.
Let us come to the Nagas of India – Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh. In all these states, the Naga people have been living since time immemorial. Now the question arises — are all those mentioned states voluntarily agreeing to disintegrate or divide their own land in favor of the Nagas to live together?
Such ideas are simply easier said than done.
Note: The remarks made by BJP leader Imkong Imchen are significant as these come close on the heels of Z Lohe, former Speaker of the Nagaland Assembly, stating in an article that “Nagas are now left with only two choices – either to accept and work for a Solution or Surrender.”
(Edited slightly for clarity and length.)