Beyond the Naga Perspective

Bela Bhatia (“Justice Denied to Tribals in the Hill Districts of Manipur”, 31 July) in her indignation over the Nagas not receiving a fair deal has overlooked certain complexities that must be taken into account in suggesting a resolution of the problem. It will be wrong and dangerous to try to solve the Naga question by simply siding with the Nagas and sharing only their perceptions.

Does the author know that on the Nagaland-Assam border, several times and twice with shocking sanguinary excess, “miscreants” from Nagaland gunned down scores of people on the Assam side of the boundary, in order to “reclaim” for their “homeland” the territory they claim as their own? Will she acknowledge that on 14 August, so-called natives of Arunachal Pradesh burnt down houses and chased away Assamese citizens, who cannot be called alien intruders into Arunachal, thereby generating tension along the border? That such “border skirmishes” in the north-east have been the result of bumbling policies of Delhi?