The induction of former NSCN Army Chiefs Hanshi Ramsan and Phungthing Shimrang as Members, Collective Leadership (MCL) and former Deputy Longvibu Absalom Raman as an Executive Member of the Steering Committee (EM, SC), has proven, beyond doubt, that Muivah still commands unquestioned loyalty within the NSCN hierarchy. However, this political shake up has revealed something much deeper; there is increasing marginalization of the moderate voices and a stealthy process of mainstreaming of /consolidation by the more radical ideologues and operatives, especially those from the Eastern Flank, in the NSCN set up.
If the Government of India is rumored to be cultivating and nurturing its own candidate as the potential successor of Muivah, it is also one of the cautionary tales that Mr. Pamshim Muivah (the name that figured in the Pegasus List), the current NSA of GPRN and Principal Emissary of the Ato Kilonser on Alee Affairs, has become increasingly radicalized, as an ideologue. Hence, it is only obvious that the political praxis of Muivah, displaying tolerance for or supportive of, the increasing ideological radicalization of his own nephew, who is known to most Tangkhuls only as Apam, is a cause for unease and worry to the Indian state.
MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO OR BREAK THE POLITICAL DEADLOCK :
Whether or not NSCN would seek to break the political deadlock or stalemate with the Indian government in a non-conventional manner or rather seek to maintain the current political status quo of being continuously engaged in the “battle of attrition” is certainly the prerogative and the call of Muivah. However, many Nagas I talk to proudly proclaim that the “GPRN/NSCN may not be a sovereign government, de jure, but it is certainly a de-facto sovereign government.” It is already an established fact that, nowadays, it is impossible for any state government and the Indian government to get anything done in Naga Territories, without the express approval of the NSCN/GPRN or what they call Hebron, and throughout Nagalim, the Nagas celebrate their Independence Day every year on 14th August, with the Government looking the other way or pretending not to notice it.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to hear many non-Naga politicians of the North East India admit that no indigenous political movement of the region has attained the pedestal that the NSCN has climbed, over the last several decades, through grit and determination. In a surprising turn of events, or because of the general or popular feeling of racial discrimination and marginalization meted out towards the tribals of the North East India, settling/working in the different metropolitan cities of the mainland, it is also not infrequent to hear many young politicians in the North East see Thuingaleng Muivah, the NSCN Supremo, as their Chief role model, and in the unlikeliest of circumstances, the young firebrand tribal politician from Tripura. It is also a fact that history repeats itself in a strange manner. The 1984 (March) Edition of the North East Sun had a Front Cover depicting the then 50 years-old Thuingaleng Muivah as the “New Messiah” of the Region.
MUIVAH; A UNIQUE SYMBOL OF SACRIFICE:
For the majority of Nagas, Mr. Muivah epitomizes sacrifice, renunciation, courage and grit. Even as a young University Student at Gauhati University (MA, Political Science, 1962-1964), his family was already an illustrious one, given that his eldest brother Lt. Shangreihan Muivah was the first Special Contractor of Manipur who constructed/black topped the 90 Km Highway from Imphal to Ukhrul town and also, his uncle from Somdal Mr. Suisa Rungsung was a member of the Parliament (1957-1962). In other words, his family was representative of the early Naga aristocracy and it was his own uncle Suisa Rungsung- first person from the North East to top the matriculation Board Exam (BISE, Dacca) of Calcutta University in 1929-who enabled the seamless transition of Muivah from a student leader to that of a guerrilla revolutionary under AZ Phizo. Suisa Rungsung went underground- became a Political Assistant of Phizo- after the end of his Lok Sabha tenure in 1962, when he was arrested with a few of his Naga Colleagues and imprisoned at Dum Dum Jail, Calcutta.
WHY SHARED SOVEREIGNTY BETWEEN NSCN/GPRN AND THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT, AS AGREED IN THE FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT OF 2015, IS SO CRUCIAL?
During the BBC Hard Talk interview of the NSCN Chief Th. Muivah conducted by Karan Thapar (April 2005), the Naga leader unequivocally stated that even though he travelled with an Indian Passport, it was specifically mentioned that “loyalty or allegiance to the Indian constitution is not applicable.” Fast forward it to 2020, during the Glenlivet Interview conducted by the same journalist, the NSCN Supremo reiterated that “NSCN and the Government of India had agreed to share sovereign powers with each other in the Framework Agreement and that Nagas will neither be part of the Indian Constitution nor the Indian Union.” On the other side of the Political Table, Indian journalists and authorities who had long been involved in the Naga political affairs had also not shied away from making similar statements.
Former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai had also mentioned in the BBC Interview of November, 2025 that the issue upon which the Government of India and the NSCN decided to negotiate was that the two entities would share their sovereignties with each other. Subhir Bhaumik, Senior Journalist of the BBC, spoke during one Video Conference of NE journalists, and said that when the Indian government agreed to have a Special Federal Relationship (SFR) with the NSCN, the Naga leaders decided to land on the Indian soil in 2005.
NAGA NATIONALISM AND AMERICAN EVANGELICALS/AMERICAN BAPTISTS:
A few Naga elders I talked to admitted that the political formula of Shared Sovereignty was first proposed by the Jimmy Carter Foundation to the former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Singh. Many years ago, a letter written personally by former US President Jimmy Carter to Dr. Singh was widely circulated among the Nagas, urging the then Indian PM to seek an honorable political settlement with the NSCN leaders; Isak and Muivah. For decades, the Naga movement had won sympathies from the US Evangelicals, and therefore, the denial of VISA by the GoI to America’s most famous Evangelist Dr Franklin Graham is only revealing. In the heyday of the Naga political Movement, when Muivah was getting trained in China, Dr. Billy Graham had conducted a Crusade in Kohima for the Naga Christians in 1972.
Muivah briefly studied at the Beijing School for Diplomacy (BSD) and participated in the Vietnam war on the side of the Vietcong led by Hoh Chi Minh (BBC Article, November, 2025). Not too long ago, during one political consultative meeting held at Ukhrul by some NSCN leaders, they had also revealed that the “Nagalim-Chapter” was set up under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the Presidency of Bill Clinton.
THE NAGA STATESMAN- A MAN WHO DRAWS ADMIRATION AND RESPECT ACROSS COMMUNITIES.
Last year in October 2025, the Chief Editor of The Print had described Th. Muivah as “the longest of the long marchers of Indian Politics and that there is no politician of his age in the Indian subcontinent-including former PM Deve Gowda and former Deputy PM and Home Minister of India LK Advani-who is, as consequential as, the 91-year old Thuingaleng Muivah.”
A few days before Muivah touched down on the soil of Naga territory in Manipur, after five decades of exile, both self-imposed and also by the state government, the Chief of Meitei Leepun (ML) Mr. Pramot Singh was effusive in his praise for the 91 -year old Naga leader to the extent of confessing that a leader like Muivah may not emerge again in Manipur for another 100 years.
More than twenty years ago, the famous Assamese Scholar Professor Sanjoy Hazarika wrote in the Hindu Editorial page and warned the Indian government about the danger of pushing Thuingaleng Muivah a little too far, given that the septuagenarian leader was a legend and a demi-god among the Nagas and he still had the capacity to paralyze four states in the North East Region; 2 states completely (Nagaland and Manipur) and 2 states partially (Arunachal Pradesh and Assam).
The statesman in Muivah is expected to leave behind a positive legacy for his own people. In the history of the Nagas, ever since it existed as one people, no Naga leader had ever commanded the kind of respect and authority like Mr. Muivah, yet, one wonders how any politician holed up in a place like Hebron for 20 years, is still capable of effectively exercising control upon the Naga population, a tremendous feat for any human.
WHAT IS THE ROAD AHEAD FOR MR. MUIVAH?
Whether or not NSCN will again choose to re-invent and regenerate its military, ideological and political affiliates or Tentacles, across the North East Region, is a question that can be honestly answered by the Collective leadership of the organization. Prior to the Ceasefire in 1997, the tentacles of NSCN expanded from the Siliguri-Nepal Corridor in the form of GNLF under Subhash Ghishing to the Bodo Tigers of Assam, the Tripuri Tigers, Achiks and the GNLA of the Garos and the HNLC of the Khasis, apart from training and arming all the Meitei Outfits and the ULFA. Some Newspaper reports in the past even mentioned that the NSCN Cadres collected Tax even on the Assam-Bangladesh border.
If the current peace between the Indian Government and the NSCN is carelessly dismantled by reckless manoeuvres of some leaders, it could have disastrous geo-strategic consequences even for the Indian state. It is one of “plausible undeniability” that the Indian state cannot afford the political and geo-strategic luxury to indulge in policy shambles when our northern neighbor and economic giant that already has an economy which is almost 6 times ours. The Chanakyan statecraft is shrewd enough to know that the most powerful and the most sophisticated military in the history of mankind, the US Pentagon, could not eliminate the Taliban in 20 years, even after having devastatingly spent 5 Trillion USD Dollars in Afghanistan.
POSSIBILITY OF A SOLUTION IN SIGHT OR CHASING A POLITICAL CHIMERA:
The Chief Editor of East Mojo Mr. Karma Poljar asked his audience as to which party in the political negotiation, either GoI or NSCN, would blink first. If the NDA Convenor of the North East and the CM of Assam had requested the public to leave the Indo-Naga political dialogue to NSCN and Government of India, so as not to complicate the issue, given that it is a very complex political issue, one often wonders why journalists should be silent on this most important political issue in the region. According to the Chief Editor of the East Mojo, Muivah and the NSCN are not going anywhere, that there are no signs of the organization slowing down and that it might have only grown stronger during the last 3 decades of Ceasefire.
The Chief Editor of the Print Mr. Shekhar Gupta might have cleverly hinted at a formula when he mentioned that the Tangkhul Nagas and the Angami Nagas are the two most powerful Tribes, politically, among the Nagas. I hope the Government of India is carefully balancing the narratives and opportunities currently in existence.
Signing the Indo–Naga Peace Agreement without the signature of Th. Muivah would not bring honour or legitimacy to either party involved. For a settlement to be meaningful, inclusive, and historically credible, it must carry the endorsement of all principal stakeholders.
Concluding the agreement during Th. Muivah’s lifetime and with his participation would demonstrate political wisdom, courage, and statesmanship. It would not only strengthen the moral and political standing of the NDA Government, but also ensure that the peace process is seen as comprehensive, respectful, and enduring.
(The views and opinions in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of Rural Post)
