Imphal, May 08 2009: Contd.from yesterday .
"The naga cause cannot be said to be detrimental to Manipur's cause," said the Vice President of the Revolutionary People's Front (RPF) and also Chief of Army Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Mahoharmayum Ngouba during a press conference held on the morning of May 5 at the PLA's Training Command Head Quarter located somewhere near Indo-Myanmar border in Ukhrul district.
Ngouba said, "There had been times when Naga cause turned out to be quite helpful to Manipur's cause and it's believed that it will be helpful in future as well.
Because Nagaland is not a few thousand kilometers away from Manipur, it is an immediate neighbouring country".
"Therefore a neighbouring country is always associated with our history and will be associated in the ages to come.
What we must see is desirable to keep a little away from the country or the views of an organisation.
Because it is believed that to take part together in a long lasting and better worldly journey will evolve from a condition in which communities of both sides enjoy a mutual understanding, like-mindedness and sharing in all spheres," Ngouba affirmed.
He said, "It will be wrong to think of all Naga people as anti-Manipuris and it will also be wrong to take all Manipuris as anti-Nagas.
As such the present situation of division and differences of opinions will depend on the policies of certain Naga bodies".
The Vice President was replying to a question raised by a journalist on the alleged link between the RPF/PLA and the NSCN-IM.
He said, "It is not only the RPF that has relations with the NSCN.
Other revolutionary organisations operating in Manipur and other surrounding countries too have relations with the NSCN".
"Both groups of the NSCN are having ceasefire agreement with the Government of India.
One is in the so-called peace process while the other one has been trying for a long time to take part in it.
There is no question of both the groups withdrawing from the process either".
He said, "Now the parties do not seem to be all that close to the NSCN as in the past.
The stand taken by the NSCN has become a hindrance to the rest of the revolutionary groups".
On another question placed by this newspaper on the tangible involvement of the NSCN-IM in the elections held under the Constitution of India by fielding candidates who would lobby in the parliamentary fora for the Naga cause while the RPF has been boycotting all elections held under the Constitution and banning anyone who is a former cadre of the outfit from contesting in the elections as a candidate, Vice President Ngouba said, "The political and social reality of the Nagas is a little different from the political and social reality of Manipur which would have been seen by the people".
"That too, the political and social reality that existed in the eighties and the political and social reality of the nineties are greatly different from that of the present.
Even in our own experience, the Naga people used to stand solidly behind the Naga movement and the representing organisation that fought against India.
But today all that had been negated by the policies of the NSCN," he pointed out.
He asserted that "it is questionable if the NSCN's objective under the Constitution of India has been achieved so far by putting up candidates in the elections".
On another question from a journalist on India's influence over the UN and other countries regarding not extending support to the insurgent groups of Manipur, the PLA's CAS replied, "it's not always true that only the rich and powerful countries can influence the relationship among the nations and change the prevailing order".
He further said, "It's quite natural for India to try to do the same.
India will do anything to protect its interest.
For us too, we, as a nation�big or small�shall do what ought to be done.
We are carrying on with our liberation movement with the conviction that it's not the rich and powerful countries alone that shape the international relations".
Ngouba further pointed out, "The parties involved in the war seem to forget that there are two sides in the job.
It's not a war that's played on the script of a drama.
There are two opposing sides in a war.
It's the people that either of the two sides tries to bring to its side.
People are kind of a trophy�a prize of war".
He said, "Since people are the decisive factor in the principles of a revolutionary war, it's the side on which the people stand that unfailingly wins.
Its significance is known to all concerned.
However, the means to translate this significance into reality seems somewhat difficult on the side of the revolutionary groups.
But it doesn't happen to be all that difficult on the part of the enemy since, apart from having one point something billion people, its economy is included in the one to ten ranks in the world.
Moreover it's a country rising in military and technology".
"Therefore, the enemy has advantages in bringing the situation prevailing in today's theatre of war to the direction of its liking," the CAS of PLA admitted.
"However if they are asked, does this make them believe that they will win the fight, they say no," Ngouba said and made reference to reports published in the newspapers in which Army Commanders and Generals had said that the military can't solve the issue.
The RPF leader also admitted that the insurgent groups lacked means and resources for taking forward and working harder on the situation, not only in terms of materials but also in moral and other issues.
"Yet it's a relative matter.
There will be no question of the enemy winning as it has larger number of population and is bigger or we will be defeated since ours is a small nation with lesser population.
It's just that they are taking a little more advantages," Ngouba said.
Regarding the mass mobilisation by the RPF/PLA for its movement, the Chief of PLA said that all the (revolutionary) parties feel the necessity of mass participation in the liberation movement.
"However, the parties seem to have different views and strategies on how to embrace the people in the movement.
"To the RPF, mass participation in the liberation movement should be based on systematised phases," he said.
He further said, "When we come back to the reality, after forgetting ourselves for a while, we find that what we believed ourselves to be contradicts the reality and that disappoints".
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