Nagaland has always been an enigma, shrouded in the cult of the warrior. The 35 Naga tribes have been fighting since long. From the mid-19th century, they brought to a standstill British armies seeking to establish control over Naga areas. Since 1956, they have fought Indian security forces in the country's longest running insurgency. And without an outsider to unite them, the Naga tribes fight amongst themselves.
An hour from the state capital, Kohima, at the gateway to Khonoma village, is a memorial slab engraved with 46 names: residents of just one village who died fighting the Indian Army. Not far from Khonoma is Nerhema, which celebrates one of its sons, Captain N Kenguruse of the Indian Army, who won a Mahavir Chakra for successfully assaulting a Pakistani-held peak, unmindful of his fatal injury.
Given this martial tradition, it is unsurprising that the guns have not been silent even through an 18-year ceasefire between the government and the most powerful Naga separatist group, the Isak Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah faction of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-I/M). Though Indian security forces were off limits, various Naga militant groups sporadically killed each other in an internecine contest for power and extortion rights.
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The deep-rooted democracy embedded in Naga tribal culture has spawned a succession of splinter groups, usually along tribal lines. AZ Phizo initiated the fight for Naga independence, under the banner of the Naga National Council (NNC). With Phizo exiled to London, NNC leaders in India signed up for peace in the 1975 Shillong Accord. That brought hundreds of insurgents over-ground but a sizeable group, then training in China, cried sell-out. Led by Swu, Muivah and a Naga from Myanmar called SS Khaplang, they renamed themselves NSCN in 1980. Trained and armed by China and espousing a Left-wing ideology, NSCN saw no irony in its official slogan: "Nagaland for Christ".
In 1988, NSCN split, with Khaplang drawing support from northern Nagas like the Konyak tribe, peeling off from the main group and heading the NSCN-K. Swu and Muivah now headed the NSCN-I/M, drawing support from southern Nagas, especially the Manipur-based Tangkhul tribe.
To its credit, New Delhi has intervened pro-actively in this drama, unlike in Jammu & Kashmir where it has remained politically passive. In June 1995, PV Narasimha Rao, then prime minister, met NSCN-I/M in Paris. HD Deve Gowda met NSCN-I/M in Zurich in February 1997, leading directly to a ceasefire agreement in May 1997. The government appointed a series of "special interlocutors", who between them have had some 80 rounds of successful talks with NSCN-I/M.
Whilst NSCN-I/M negotiated as the guest of New Delhi, NSCN-K stood marginalised, largely because Muivah made it clear that opening dialogue with Khaplang would mean the end of talks with him. So Khaplang, a longstanding handmaiden of Indian intelligence agencies, was told that he would be brought into the dialogue at the right time. He bided his time.
As a consequence of dialogue with NSCN-I/M, New Delhi has in its hands an agreed settlement with this key group, which the government believes would unlock the door for separate agreements with other Naga groups and a final end to the problem. Sources close to the talks say Swu and Muivah have dropped their two key demands: a sovereign Nagaland with its own constitution, army and currency; and the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas, including in the neighbouring states of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Making concessions
The sovereignty demand was dropped when NSCN-I/M came to the table, an acknowledgment that maximalist positions had yielded no results in four decades of fighting. The larger breakthrough was Swu and Muivah's acceptance that it was impossible to reorganise states to include all Naga-inhabited areas into a "Greater Nagaland" termed Nagalim. During negotiations, and through years of strife with the states concerned, the Naga leaders came to understand that Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam would on no account accept their territory being peeled off and merged into Nagalim.
NSCN-I/M, therefore, settled for an autonomous administrative mechanism for Naga-inhabited areas, of the kind already created for other hill areas, such as the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils for Leh and Kargil.
Even so, NSCN-I/M is clinging onto hope for a Greater Nagaland someday, perhaps through the mechanism of a States Reorganisation Commission, as was done in the 1950s.
This secret agreement is reflected in a joint statement by the government and NSCN-I/M, issued in New Delhi on July 18, 2011, announcing a breakthrough in the peace process. It stated: "Sustained negotiations over the past few months have led to a set of proposals for an honorable political settlement… By appreciating and respecting each other's position and difficulties, both the parties are confident of working out a settlement in the shortest possible time."
Business Standard is aware that the settlement was finalised and even checked and approved for constitutional validity by the attorney general. Yet two governments have failed to push it through. For two years in 2012-14, the United Progressive Alliance dallied; followed by a year of inactivity by the National Democratic Alliance.
The new interlocutor, RN Ravi, who is the chairman of the joint intelligence committee, has met Swu and Muivah. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kohima in November to inaugurate the Hornbill Festival, but no deal was announced or inked.
Winds of change
Meanwhile, New Delhi's negotiation plan began to unravel, setting the stage for the bloody June 4 ambush on an army column in Manipur, in which 18 soldiers died. Khaplang ran out of patience and trust, concluding that New Delhi's deal with Swu and Muivah would leave him out in the cold. With a limited support base in India, this Burmese Naga would have to feed off the crumbs from Muivah's table. With time running out, Khaplang refused to renew his ceasefire in April.
The signals were clear that Khaplang would strike hard at Indian security forces to underline his relevance. Even as NSCN-K began splintering - a new group, NSNC-R, peeled off days after the ceasefire abrogation - Khaplang's fighters began targeting the security forces. On April 25, an Assam Rifles trooper was shot dead; on May 3, NSCN-K killed eight security personnel and wounded nine in the Mon district.
Yet the government did little. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju blandly declared that the government took "serious note of the incident from the security point of view".
"The June 4 attack was an explosion waiting to happen. We should have activated intelligence sources, tightened up security forces and issued public statements to tell Nagas that Khaplang had repudiated the ceasefire, which the government wanted to continue. Public sentiment in Nagaland overwhelmingly favours an end to violence. The government could have generated strong public pressure on Khaplang to return to the table", says a senior Nagaland government official.
Intelligence officials admit they underestimated Khaplang, who had already joined hands with nine northeast militant groups, forming a joint front, United National Liberation Front of West South East Asia.
Even so, the Indian Army's cross-border strike of June 9 against Khaplang's camps in Myanmar has put the spotlight on both NSCN-K and the government. Khaplang's fighters, accustomed to the comfort of ceasefire camps, do not relish the prospect of a return to jungle camps with the army at their heels. For the government, there is the need to sign off on an agreement that satisfies not just NSCN-K but also an angry and embittered Khaplang.