Looking at all that have been said of the August 3, `Peace Accord` between the NSCN(IM) leaders and the Government of India representatives, and the numerous interpretations, some wild others honest, but all without any sense of certainty of what they are saying, cannot but remind of the 1980 Hollywood blockbuster comedy, `The gods must be crazy`. To summarise the plot of this movie very briefly, a tribe in the middle of the Kalahari desert in Africa, isolated from the world, were living happily and contented that the gods were kind in blessing them with plentiful resources to meet their simple needs and aspirations until one fine day, somebody carelessly throws a Coca-Cola bottle out of a plane on their land (Coca-Cola bottles were made of thick durable glass those days and their plastic replacements were still unknown). When the tribal Bushmen discover this artefact which they have never seen before, it sows the seed for destabilising their society and their world view. The social and cosmic equilibrium that they so far enjoyed with whatever little they had soon began to be shattered before their very eyes. First they see is as another gift from the gods, and treasure the object, experimenting and putting it to various uses, including making music by blowing at the bottle`™s nozzle. Soon the object, as well as its owner, gain unprecedented importance, and together with it, reverence, envy, jealousy, revulsion and even hatred. Slowly but surely, its significance transitions, and it comes to be seen an evil object which needed to be thrown away from the edge of the world. The tribesmen embark on this mission of travelling to the edge of the world, and their emissary meets many more hilarious adventures on the way.
The `Naga Peace Accord` announced with fanfare on August 3, though later the rhetoric was toned down to mean just a `Framework Agreement`, is also beginning to look very much like the empty Coca-Cola bottle. Here too the discussions, speculations, anticipations, praises, disdains etc., all with little or no substance, are beginning to have a life of their own. Anything said about it becomes the subject of hot debates and speculations. There are those who think this Peace Accord was no accord at all and was instead just hot airs. Others think the accord is loaded with meanings and either celebrate or else worry about its consequences. On the vast uncharted terrain of the internet social networking sites, where opinions, even the wildest and the most vicious, are free, these exchanges are cacophonous and sometimes ugly, but all the same interesting, if not amusing. Some go to the extent of claiming the accord has agreed to give the Nagas virtual sovereignty with own currency, flag, embassies etc. Others dismiss the entire show as mere placebo and an honourable exit route provided to besieged NSCN(IM) leaders. The truth probably is neither and will be known only when the entire package is announced.
For the moment, from all that has been said by those who made the deal, the box is empty. It is meant only as a preamble to reaffirm that both the parties`™ resolve to work towards an honourable solution, a stated commitment which is hardly new to be of any fresh excitement. It must however be said that the empty box announced on August 3, like the empty Coca-Cola bottle in the Hollywood movie, is now turning out to be an interesting litmus test to gauge the moods and opinions of all the stakeholders. The authorities, especially of the Government of India, must have assessed, as much as any other keen observer would have, as to who wants what, and who would oppose to what. If this was deliberate, it has to be said the idea is brilliant. But the circumstances under which the `Peace Accord` was signed, does not seem to indicate any such motive. The chairman of the NSCN(IM), Isak Chishi Swu was critically ill then, and he wanted to see his life`™s labour fructify before he dies, and this wish, informed sources now tell us, was what led to the rush in signing the admittedly empty accord which merely gives a framework of things that are desired to be ultimately the box`™s content. Our opinion is, this is an important development, and a resolution must result out of it, but without harming the interests of any other stakeholders. We should therefore watch its progress keenly and critically, but giving it a change to develop further, and encouraging the negotiators to absorb the feedbacks from all the informal public discourses, apart from their other considerations.
Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam