The road to Somdal is not long. It’s a 23-kilometre, winding stretch from the district headquarters of Ukhrul in Manipur — patchy, broken in parts, a dirt road in other parts, smooth in pockets. It’s akin to many hill roads in the Northeast. The only difference is that it leads to the home of the most influential insurgent leader, now peacemaker, of the Northeast in over half a century.
But it wasn’t the road which took Thuingaleng Muivah, the 91-year-old patriarch of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim, home after decades of self-imposed exile last month. A helicopter carried him and his close aides to Ukhrul and then to Somdal before moving to Senapati and, finally, returning to his home base in Dimapur in Nagaland. At every stop, a frail Muivah was received by cheering and teary-eyed crowds waving blue Naga flags as hundreds sang specially composed welcome songs and Biblical hymns even as guitars strummed, filling the air with rich, joyful melodies.
The Nagas are amazing singers with a magnificent sense of rhythm and harmony, and the clear skies with sunlightpouring down on the audience, many of whom were wrapped in colourful red shawls, jackets, kilts and sarongs, heightened the sense of celebration. The rebel leader, having blazed a trail of an anti-India insurgency with connections to China and Pakistan, who once fought security forces at times to a standstill, was finally home.
The visit was brief. Muivah walked around with difficulty, at times with a stick, other times unassisted, and, more often than not, with two fit aides close to him to assist should the need arise. It was a deeply personal occasion but in the many videos that emerged from the visit, Muivah repeatedly enunciated his political mantra: that the Naga issues could be resolved only if the Centre agreed to two demands that have evaded solution. These are the recognition for the blue Naga flag embossed with a rainbow and the Star of Bethlehem and the Naga Constitution. New Delhi has found these demands difficult to accommodate.
A 2017 interview by R.N. Ravi, the one-time government interlocutor for the Centre-NSCN(I-M) talks — he is now governor of Tamil Nadu — has been circulating these past days. In it, Ravi says categorically that the Framework Agreement provided “the broad parameters in which the final agreement will be worked out” and described it as a one-page statement of “principles”. Muivah and Ravi had signed the accord (the ailing Isak Chishi Swu, the I of the NSCN(I-M), had done so from his hospital bed in Delhi) in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other cabinet members. Ten years later, despite Muivah’s highly publicised visit to his home hamlet, there are still hurdles to a sustainable settlement.
The Naga leaders keep citing the Framework Agreement as a major achievement. Yet even V.S. Atem, known as the deputy Ato Kilonser or deputy prime minister (Muivah is Ato Kilonser or prime minister) in the NSCN(I-M)’s ‘government’, has expressed exasperation with the slow pace of the process. Atem charges New Delhi of delaying the process and of creating new problems instead of resolving old ones. In an interview, he specifically spoke of the Centre’s moves to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and end the Free Movement Regime, which enabled people from either side to enter the other country with minimum controls (New Delhi has now instituted new rules governing the movement). Such steps could “create violence, invite violence” among the Nagas, he stated.
Atem is a crucial figure in Muivah’s close circle and is seen as a potential successor. In fact, a key part of the succession process played out in an announcement which created no ripple outside of the region: the appointment of a new Naga ‘army chief’, a critical post which exercises control over the group’s tightly knit and tough military that has long had a major role in cementing the NSCN(I-M)’s control across a rugged terrain and ensuring armed superiority over its rivals. The previous incumbent, Anthony Shimray, had apparently expressed an interest in a fresh term. Shimray is a celebrated NSCN(I-M) leader who once headed what is known as the Alee Command, or the Foreign Legion, entrusted with missions abroad, including military hardware procurement. Shimray has made way for Honreishang Shadang, regarded as close to Atem. One significant point is often overlooked — the entire political and military leadership of the NSCN(I-M) is dominated by the Tangkhul tribe, Mr Muivah’s ethnic group, which is located in Manipur and does not have roots in Nagaland.
Differences have emerged within the NSCN(I-M) with key fighters and leaders having moved across to the Naga-dominated tracts in western Myanmar. Dissensions exploded into the open last April with the son of Isak Chishi Swu, who co-founded the NSCN(I-M) with Muivah, launching a blistering attack on issues of corruption. “The virus of corruption has infected all organs of the NSCN/GPRN government because of mismanagement and the top leadership’s moral decay. The values my father stood for till his last breath have been compromised,” said Ikato Chishi Swu. The significant point here is that Swu is a Sumi, one of the dominant tribes of Nagaland, and his father was highly regarded in the state. He also touched a sensitive issue, which is difficult to go into detail here — that of the unrelenting ‘taxation’ of businesses, large and petty, as well as of officials by the armed factions that has led to widespread public exasperation.
The internal challenges before the Nagas cannot be underestimated: armed groups are divided as are the tribes over loyalty to different factions. Karma Paljor, editor of East Mojo, says divisions among the Nagas have weakened the movement. A single Naga political and armed entity in the 1950s has now splintered into 27 groups. The Government of India holds separate talks with the NSCN(I-M) and the rival alliance of the other factions. There is a Forum for Naga Reconciliation that is trying to bring the factions together, including the NSCN(I-M), to hammer out common responses to the Centre. FNR leaders say it is a slow and challenging process because much blood has been spilt in the past. But they also say that they are hopeful since trust is being built among the groups.
Muivah, who repeats himself in interviews and is physically frail — his speech was read out for him at Ukhrul although he spoke briefly in Senapati — remains blunt in his refusal to bow to Delhi’s demand. He reminded interviewers of a challenge he threw down earlier to Indian negotiators: “So you want to play your games with us? Come what may, we will stand our ground. We will not come… to surrender to you.”
In some ways, I find a parallel between a political resolution of the tangled history of the Nagas and the condition of the Somdal road. I last undertook that journey nearly two decades back. In some places, there was no road: at one point, our Maruti Gypsy went crashing down a dry stream bed. Each person held onto the closest metal frames for dear life. We finally staggered into Somdal late, after a five-hour journey that now takes one and half hours, and were received with generosity and warmth, with the people opening up their homes to complete strangers.
The road to resolution is often broken and damaged. The Nagas have been very patient and persistent — for 28 years — in the course of ongoing, unending talks. Perhaps they don’t really have a choice. I remember telling Mr Muivah about the journey to Somdal, paraphrasing an old saying: “The way to paradise is not paved with good intentions but full of broken roads”. He had smiled broadly.
A young journalist who went on this road recently said that she would need “physiotherapy” after returning home. That’s also what the political process needs, from time to time — healing.
Sanjoy Hazarika is a writer who specialises on the Northeast and travels extensively in the region