GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Har Ghar Tiranga” campaign drew a seesaw counterview in the Naga-majority hills of Manipur.
As the stalemate in the Naga peace process continues, the Nagas hoisted the “Naga national flag” and organised programmes at many villages in the Naga areas of Manipur on Sunday to celebrate the “Naga Independence Day”.
On August 14, 1947, the extremists of the Naga National Council had proclaimed independence from British rule. It was an attempt to be seen as separate from the Indian nation.
Photos and videos of Sunday’s Naga Independence Day celebration in Manipur went viral on social media. The Nagas have a sizeable population in the state.
In Ukhrul district, which is the birthplace of several top leaders of the major rebel group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), including the general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah, people celebrated the day by hoisting the Naga national flag across villages.
Some Naga organisations had asked the Naga villages to hoist the Naga flag in the morning of August 14 to mark the day.
In neighbouring Nagaland, the Naga flag was hoisted here and there, including at the designated camps of the insurgent groups, but the Indian national flag was way more visible.
Meanwhile, the All Naga Students Association, Manipur (ANSAM) criticised Manipur’s BJP-led government for its alleged “blanket order” to hoist the Indian national flag on August 15 “whereby directly and indirectly confronting the rights and sentiments of the Nagas and provoking us”.
“The Nagas have been celebrating our Independence Day on August 14 since 1947 and we hope the government of Manipur will take note of this history. A political negotiation has also been undergoing at the PM-level Indo-Naga peace talks. Such an order negates the spirit of the Framework Agreement and negotiation between the two entities. We will not allow any imposition of flag-hoisting,” the ANSAM said in a statement.
The Centre held parallel peace parleys with the NSCN-IM and a conglomerate of seven other Naga extremist groups. The talks have already concluded but a solution to the vexed seven-decade-old “Naga political problem” continues to elude the Nagas as well as the government as the NSCN-IM has stuck to its guns on the demand of the Naga national flag and Naga constitution, which, the outfit said, is “non-negotiable.”