Mon killing snowballs in big jolt to Naga issue

In the battle for hearts and minds, Saturday’s mowing down of at least 16 innocent youths in Nagaland’s Mon district by army paratroopers has made a big dent. It couldn’t have come at a worse time and has done huge damage to decades of effort to resolve the Naga tangle, writes Sanjib Kr Baruah

New Delhi:From the time two weeks ago when the aging proud father of slain Assam Rifles jawan Khatnai Konyak delivered a heart-wrenching speech during the burial ceremony of his fallen son urging his tribesmen to support India and keep manning the borders, there has been a veritable u-turn in the sentiment of Nagas towards the security forces.

Khatnai Konyak was killed in a deadly ambush laid by insurgents in Manipur’s bullets on November 13, 2021 near the India-Myanmar border in Manipur’s Churachandpur district.

The killing of at least 16 Naga Konyak tribesmen and injury to at least a score—of whom the condition of about four is known to be serious—in firing by soldiers of the Army’s 21 Para and Assam Rifles troopers near Oting village in Nagaland’s Mon district on Saturday couldn’t have come at a worse time for the government and is snowballing into a much bigger issue.

The killing in a possible case of mistaken identity comes at a time when the Naga peace talks are stuck in a state of limbo with no substantial progress after having kick-started in 1997 with the Isak-Muivah faction of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) amid obvious fault-lines of division along tribal lines within the larger Naga community.

After some initial progress despite a framework agreement signed between the government and the NSCN (IM) in 2015, the status of the talks is now unclear.

Interestingly, there is an ongoing ceasefire between the government and the various insurgent groups in Nagaland, something that has been violated by Saturday’s gunfight.

With December being the top festive time in Nagaland due to the ongoing Hornbill festival, Christmas and New Year’s eve, the killings have generated a lot of anger among Nagas as also bring renewed focus on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

The AFSPA is a controversial law that enables security forces to shoot at sight and arrest anybody without a warrant in disturbed areas of the Northeast and Kashmir.

When reports last came in, Naga civilians had already set Assam Rifles posts in Mon town on fire on Sunday even as various Naga tribes and tribal ‘hohos’ (council of tribal elders) have condemned the killings in the strongest terms with many of them asking their tribesmen to disassociate with the ongoing Hornbill festival in state capital Kohima.

Reports speak of more deaths in firing by Assam Rifles soldiers in Mon town on Monday.

The deaths have resulted in a new sense of unity among the different Naga tribes and insurgent factions which will make the Indian government’s negotiating team face a much formidable and focused opposition across the table.

The sense of angst among Nagas will also impel more youths to join insurgent outfits which will be no doubt helped by the fact that neigbouring Myanmar—a traditional bastion for Northeast insurgents—is in a state of turmoil and chaos due to a civil war-like situation with ethnic armed organisations fighting full-pitched battles with the Myanmarese army.

The sense of anger among Nagas may also percolate to the Nagas in Manipur where the state assembly elections are to be held in March 2022—just three months away.

Nagas in Manipur have the numbers to influence the electoral outcome in at least 11 assembly constituencies out of Manipur’s 60 seats. In the 2017 state polls, the ruling BJP had bagged 21 seats while the Congress had won in 28 ending up as the largest single party in the state.

As a result, discontent of Nagas with the ruling BJP-led dispensation at the Centre in New Delhi could spill over to discontent with the ruling BJP government in Manipur that is delicately balanced against the Congress as of now.