Both the chairman of the Hill Areas Committee and the MP from Outer Manipur are constitutionally elected Nagas. They are not outsiders; they are our own. That is why their voice is crucial, their silence is more painful, and their responsibility to do much more is non‑negotiable.
Like in most countries around the world, water bodies in Manipur – lake, marshes, rivers, paddies and ponds – are more or less dominated by introduced fish species such as Asian carps, some of which have since become invasive by nature.
Michael Meiphami Shaiza writes about Naga existential threat, the Manipur catastrophic crisis, and the urgent imperative of NRC, census and constitutional justice.
The Nepal disaster is a potential recipe for neighboring country Bhutan, another of the Himalayan nation state perched precariously amongst fragile mountain landscape that is fast deteriorating from climate change impacts, in particular receding glaciers and increasingly evident glacial lake formation.
Accountability begins at home. It demands that Naga political groups, Indian political parties, and Naga Civil Society Organizations stop using the Naga people as bargaining chips and start serving the Naga people as shepherds.
Naga people have survived centuries because we refused to be erased. But survival is not enough. We must live with honor, writes Michael Meiphami Shaiza.
There are those who bear the mandate of representation yet fail the Collective Naga Voice. They occupy assemblies, councils, and negotiating tables, yet they do not carry the moral weight of the people’s soul.