India-Myanmar Relation: “India, Myanmar and the Naga People: Unresolved Colonial Political Conflict” – a communiqué dated 5th November 2022 unexpectedly explored a great deal of thought that bemoaned the bizarre history of the Naga movement leading to the flawed Naga Peace Process.
The recent turmoil in Myanmar together with the Naga Peace Process and its imperfect accord arrived at in the past by various governments in Delhi has a direct bearing on the peace and security aspects of the North East region of India. What is important to understand is that the Naga Issue which stands resolved officially has many disgruntled cohorts with many genuine concerns still remaining unanswered.
Nirmal Nibedon’s ‘Night of the Guerillas’ is one of the most authentic and an exhaustive exposition of the Naga Insurrection and it has unfolded many burning issues with precision. The statement of 5th September is a probing addition to the exposition and its sensational but spot-on incorporation of the Myanmarese factor. Very few in the power corridors of Delhi should get away with the fact that the Naga community snakes in and out of Myanmar and then slip away from sight! Indeed, it is perhaps this lack of knowledge that cost many innocent lives including eighteen brave hearts of the 6 Dogra Regiment who were ambushed by a group of terrorists belonging to the NSCN (Khaplang) and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) in Manipur’s Chandel on 4 June 2015.
Myanmar does not consider NSCN (K) to be an insurgent group
There has been truce with a delegation of prominent Indian personages in 2014 for a “Track II Dialogue” with Myanmarese counterparts, In one of the sessions dedicated to security, the Indian counterpart had queried as to what Myanmar’s specific relation with NSCN (K) was. After all, New Delhi was, at the time, in a ceasefire mode with the Naga grouping. But what is disconcerting for India is the fact that Myanmar does not consider NSCN (K) to be an insurgent group and had got into an agreement with the outfit on 9 April 2012 in Hkampti well after New Delhi had signed a cessation of hostilities with the group in 2001. It is in this context that arouses curiosity with suspicion to ascertain the contours of Myanmar’s agreement with NSCN (K) because it had a bearing on the Naga Peace Process that was underway. The NSCN (K) has specific footprints in Myanmar and although New Delhi had got into a ceasefire agreement with the organization, there were mandarins in Delhi who believed that there should be no dialogue with NSCN (K) because it was a Myanmarese Naga outfit and its leader was a Myanmarese national.
Cross-border Naga ethnicity is the crux of the problem and the solution too
It is pertinent to note that Nagas curiously criss-cross political boundaries for preserving their ethnic contiguity and the dilemma which India is faced with, is how to keep the warring community across borders quiet. It is also hypocritically relevant that innocent lives were lost as a result of a few officials in New Delhi who ordained that there was no point in holding dialogues with ‘Myanmarese Naga’. Various diplomats and policymakers in the political galleries of New Delhi have failed to realize the fact that Nagas whether from India or Myanmar have a strong ethnic bond and the Naga problem cannot be restricted within the boundaries of India. The communiqué of 5 November 2022 had—in all fairness—unravelled this harsh truth.
Panglong Agreement provided ultimate authority to some ethnic groups
Again it is notable to understand that India and Myanmar were on the path to attain independence on 15 August 1947 and 4 January 1948 respectively, the Nagas of Myanmar had refused to sign the Panglong Agreement of 12th February 1947 which “was instrumental in forming the Union of Burma” and was the crucial step for providing “full autonomy in internal administration for the Frontier Areas” to some of the ethnic groups of Myanmar such as the Kachins. In other words, the Nagas that inhabited the territory of Myanmar at the time of Burmese independence had not accepted the Bamar “consolidation” in any form or manner. The Bamar also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia? With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of the country’s population
There continues to be great bewilderment and dissonance in New Delhi about how to deal with the Naga issue in its entirety. A section of the decision makers is against speaking to NSCN (K) because the group is stationed in Myanmar and yet there are splinter factions of the original organization, now located in the Indian threshold and have entered into agreements with New Delhi. It is high time – the power blocks in New Delhi should realize that the highly intricate, but all-inclusive Naga Problem requires a comprehensive solution that would decisively rest on a “tripartite dialogue” that the Nagas of Myanmar have been seeking. This even led to the NSCN (K) which has a population of 400,000 Nagas living in Myanmar not signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement of 15 October 2015.
Meanwhile, Myanmar is in a state of great turmoil. But it has an extremely important bearing on both the security and development of the North East. But as a matter of fact, New Delhi’s policy towards Myanmar and the strife that it is undergoing has been ironically lenient. Ambivalence has cost India dear in the past with innocent lives being lost and an ambitious project such as the “Act East Policy” refusing to “Go East”.
Incidentally, the traditional security aspects that govern the outlands are not confined to only the Nagas, but the valley-based insurgent groups of Manipur are also responsible for attacks on Indian security forces from across Myanmar. Col. Viplav Tripathi and his ill-fated family, besides, innocent five years old child, Abeer were killed by a gang of PLA (Manipur). New Delhi cannot rest on the laurels of having nabbed one of the perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
A prudent group of experts from MEA and MHA New Delhi should act soon for arriving at a reasonably long-term solution providing due significance to the prevailing ground realities within the country and across the border.
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