Nagaland celebrates 59th state foundation day

• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has greeted the people of Nagaland on their Statehood Day.
• In July 1960, following discussion between Prime Minister Nehru and the leaders of the Naga People Convention (NPC), a 16-point agreement was arrived at whereby the Government of India recognised the formation of Nagaland as a full-fledged state within the Union of India.
• Nagaland became the 16th state of India on 1 December 1963.

Nagaland

• It is a state in northeastern India. It is bordered by the state of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east.
• Its capital city is Kohima and its largest city is Dimapur.
• It has an area of 16,579 square kilometres (6,401 sq mi) with a population of 1,980,602 per the 2011 Census of India, making it one of India's smallest states

• Governor: Jagdish Mukhi (additional charge) • Chief Minister: Neiphiu Rio (NDPP) • Deputy Chief Ministers: Yanthungo Patton (BJP) • Legislature Unicameral (60 seats) • Parliamentary constituency: Rajya Sabha 1, Lok Sabha 1

Naga Movement Timeline

Pre-independence phase:

• The Naga Hills became part of British India in 1881.
• In 1918, the Naga Club was formed to bring unity among the Naga tribes.
• Since 1929, the Naga club has advocated for complete autonomy for the Nagas and had also petitioned the Simon Commission in 1929 to leave the Naga inhabited territories alone and not to club it with the larger Indian Territory.
• The Naga club metamorphosed into the Naga National Council (NNC) in 1946. Under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo, the NNC declared Nagaland as an independent State on August 14, 1947, and conducted a referendum in May 1951 to claim support for a “sovereign Nagaland”.
• In June 1947, Assam Governor Sir Akbar Hydari signed the Nine-Point Agreement with the moderates in the NNC but Phizo rejected it outright.

Post-independence phase:

• In March 1952, Phizo formed the underground Naga Federal Government (NFG) and the Naga Federal Army.
• The government of India sent in the Army to crush the insurgency and, in 1958, enacted the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
• A 16-point Agreement with the Naga People’s Convention (moderate faction) followed in July 1960 leading to the creation of Nagaland in December 1963.
• In April 1964, a Peace Mission was formed for an agreement on suspension of operations with the NNC, but it was abandoned in 1967 after six rounds of talks.
• The Shillong Accord of 1975 followed, under which a section of NNC and NFG agreed to give up arms. A group of 140 members led by Mr. Muivah, who was in China then, refused to accept the Shillong Accord and formed the NSCN in 1980. The outfit split in 1988 with one faction led by Mr. Muivah and the other by the Myanmar-based Khaplang.
• The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) — one of the largest Naga groups – signed a ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 1997.

Latest developments:

• A framework agreement was signed in 2015. Also known as the Nagaland Peace Accord, it was signed between the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), to end the insurgency in the state of Nagaland.
• An agreement on the political parameters of the settlement was worked out with the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), in 2017.
• The peace talks between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM could not yield a peace agreement by October 31 2019, the government’s deadline for concluding an accord. The negotiations seemed to have reached a stalemate.

Way Forward

• The Centre must negotiate with all the factions and groups of the Insurgents to have a long-lasting peace. Further, their cultural, historical and territorial extent must be taken into consideration.
• Any arrangement to be worked out should lead to social and political harmony, economic prosperity and protection of the life and property of all tribes and citizens of the states.
• Another way of dealing with the issue can be maximum decentralisation of powers to the tribal heads and minimum centralisation at the apex level, which should mainly work towards facilitating governance and undertaking large development projects.
• Greater autonomy for the Naga inhabited areas in these states can be provided which would encompass separate budget allocations for the Naga inhabited areas with regard to their culture and development issues.
• Moreover, the Centre must keep in mind that most of the armed insurgencies across the world do not end in either total victory or comprehensive defeat, but in a grey zone called ‘compromise’.