Response to the Award by Niketu Iralu

Honourable Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Tarun Gogoi; Honourable Minister for Culture, Co-operation and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Bharat Narah, Shrimati Shakuntala Choudhury, Shri Robin Bordoloi, MLA for Guwahati, Shri and Shrimati Bolin Bordoloi, and others of the Bordoloi family present, distinguished personalities of Assam, ladies and gentlemen,

I am simply stating what is most obvious when I say I do not deserve the prestigious Award the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Memorial Trust has decided to confer on me. After all it is associated with the name of the statesman-hero of modern Assam, whereas all that I have done has been merely trying to walk “the road less travelled” in trying to care for my people, but without anything tangible to show for the efforts made. However, setting aside my doubts about myself, I humbly accept the Award, convinced that helping to deepen the conversation and understanding between the peoples of Assam and Nagaland is the real meaning and purpose of the magnanimous gesture by the Trust.

I hope it is not too presumptuous on my part to think that the thought behind the Award is part of the continuation of the deeply cherished link Gopinath Bordoloi established between the Assamese and Nagas during the momentous years of his leadership of the region.

I feel highly honoured to be here today with my wife and three close colleagues from Nagaland to participate in this occasion that commemorates the memory of Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi and acknowledges the bold, far-sighted role he played which decisively shaped the future of Assam which today has become North-East India.

We understand that while he was in prison in Jorhat during the Quit India Movement of 1942, Gopinath Bordoloi started to articulate his thinking in a number of essays on the broad issues of governance of the whole region including the hitherto ignored question of the tribal peoples of the hills and plains of Assam. The first time he met the Nagas was when he came to the then Naga Hills District in connection with the protracted strike by the students of the Kohima Government High School in 1946. It was the first organized modern political protest action by the Nagas. The fact that the very busy Premier of Assam travelled all the way to an isolated district headquarters like Kohima to give his attention to a strike by students, and the respect he showed for their grievances, won their trust and confidence. The settlement he proposed was accepted.

The next experience of his leadership Nagas had was when he talked to A.Z. Phizo and the Naga National Council leadership to explore ways of finding a solution to the conflict that was just starting. Again, Nagas were won by his obvious humanity and his sensitive understanding of the stand they had taken as a people. Phizo reportedly told his colleagues that Gopinath Bordoloi naturally wanted Nagas to be part of the India he belonged to. But that Nagas found in him someone they could trust as he was ready to listen to them to understand their position.

What has happened during the past 50-60 years in our region is known to all of us. Compelled to respond suddenly to unanticipated challenges coming to us from a fast changing world we have acted in ways that have caused wounds and suffering to one another, often without intending to. All our communities have our own interpretations for the compulsions that have prompted our actions, which others question or even resent. So whenever I find myself trying to say something to an audience like this one in any of the States next to us, I know I need to remember the warning that “Love is blind, but neighbours are not”!

But on this occasion I think it is appropriate for me to touch briefly on what I think is the central issue coming out from the many conflicts that have shaken our region over the past half century. The conflicts have deeply scarred all of us. But have not some lessons emerged clearly? And are they not now becoming our common understanding and wisdom, and therefore our common strength that will enable us to grow together? The issue surely is the meaning of human diversity and human aspirations and what our response to them should be.

I believe from the tumultuous conflicts of the past, we have come to understand that the aspirations of all peoples are sacred, because all peoples grow and develop properly only by nurturing their aspirations and possessing self-respect. It is right and necessary to fight for our aspirations. It is wrong to remain silent about the facts of our history due to fear, greed, or insufficient thinking, and hate ourselves and blame others. Let us be grateful we have all fought for what we have believed to be important for our people. But our costly mistakes have shown we have to be worthy of our aspirations. We have to learn to adopt methods and means in our struggles that will bring change, hope and growth instead of all-round despair and destruction as we have seen in all the struggles of our region.

In conclusion, I would like to share a conviction which some of us in Nagaland are beginning to understand and want to develop. It is this: the time has come when all of us have to develop together a wider common stability for our whole region if we are to match the extraordinary opportunities and dangers of this century. This will be the constructive way to make our bewildering diversity our common strength, not our curse and weakness. It will not be beyond God and the combined genius and wisdom of all the peoples of North-East India. Can we build trust and goodwill by our united commitment to what needs to be done for the sake of all?

Once again I want to thank you most sincerely for the honour you have given me today. I regard it as a generous gesture from Assam to all Nagas.