Nagaland to have first I-Day without boycott call

GUWAHATI: Nagaland creates history on Thursday. It will be for the first time since India’s independence that August 15 would be celebrated in Nagaland without a boycott call by rebels.
Of course, the Naga rebels, who interestingly celebrate their own Naga Independence Day on August 14, have their own reasons for not clamping the boycott this time.
‘‘Our flag is also unfurled’’, said Punthing Shimran, a ‘‘colonel’’ in the Issac-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland(NSCN-IM). ‘‘Since we are having talks with the Indian government and there is already a ceasefire on, we have reserved our opinion on Indian I-Day celebrations. But yes, there is no boycott call from our side,’’ Shimran said, who heads the ceasefire monitoring cell of the outfit.
‘‘We had parades, drills, cultural performances, reading of presidential speeches and get- togethers at different locations. Gun salutes are offered in the general and the central headquarters.
‘‘This is the sign of the return of peace to Nagaland. I am sure that the turnout at the public grounds here, where the flag would be unfurled by roads and bridges minister K.V. Pusa, would be massive,’’ feels a happy Ato Yepthomi, a businessman in Nagaland’s commercial capital of Dimapur.
His case is, however, different. He says, ‘‘Being the state secretary of the BJP’s youth wing, I always defied boycott calls in the past to attend Independence Day celebrations. The absence of any ban on celebrating I-Day would make a lot of difference to the common people. Of course, it is entirely because of our BJP government’s efforts that the peace parleys have been successful.’’