'Guns, Nagas synonymous for 70 years': Militant group on 'armed wedding photo'

A day after the police arrested the son of a leader of a Naga insurgent group and his wife for brandishing guns during their wedding, the outfit ridiculed the media and the government for making a “mountain out of a molehill”.

“Indian judiciary and legal system seems to have caught up with the young couple. A witch-hunt has been set into motion. GPRN/NSCN (government of insurgent groups) in the next few days can also produce thousands of pictures of non-national workers (insurgents are called national workers) of Nagas, ranging from 10 years to 70 years of age, both men and women, who proudly posed with the exact or more lethal weapons than the ones used by the bride and the groom,” the NSCN(U) outfit said in a statement.

“Will the authority go after everyone, who have posed with the weapons, and prosecute them in the equal manner, book them and seize the weapons?” the statement asked. NSCN(U) is part of the NNPG group, which reportedly has accepted the peace deal with the government of India, unlike NSCN(IM), and accepted all norms to sign the peace accord as soon as possible.

On June 9, the son of Naga outfit leader Bohoto Kiba got married in Dimapur. During their wedding party, the groom and bride, a local resident, were seen posing with sophisticated M4 and AK-56 rifles.

Once the photo went viral on social media, Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi reportedly asked state police to take action as he found the image to be a violation of the ceasefire agreement. The reaction of the NSCN(U) is equally disturbing for the government of India as the outfit might be heading towards another direction regarding talks.

The NSCN(U) termed the action of the media in publicising the couple's wedding photograph as “unjustified”. And it also contested the government’s claim and governor’s sudden involvement.

“The social media of Nagaland, print and electronic media in India have taken news reporting to a new high or rather low. Here is a curious case of a young groom and bride. The young man’s father is a respected Naga leader, holding a red category identity card (meaning entitlement of two weapons for personal security),” the NSCN(U) statement said.

“The groom, on his wedding day, after all the guests had left, overcome by boyhood emotion and thrill of wanting to hold a real weapon on his most significant day, requested his father’s security guards to let him and his lady love click photos with permitted weapons. They took photos in a private space with few family members around... the photo got forwarded to WhatsApp and the rest, as they say, is history,” said the insurgent group.

The outfit said social media in Nagaland went berserk and Indian media smelled blood as the viral photo of the newly married couple posing with automatic weapons created a storm.

“Indian TV channels finally realised that there was life in Nagaland!” said the outfit.

Lambasting the Indian media, the outfit said, during floods in Dimapur, commercial headquarters of Nagaland, the Indian media was completely absent from the state.

“Now, a single, harmless wedding photo has been abused and criminalised as though the bride and the groom have brought down another World Trade Centre or the most elusive, dreaded terrorist couple were caught in wedding dress with assault rifles,” it said.

The statement issued by the publicity division of the NSCN(U) said that Naga boys have grown up with guns from their childhood—whether it was first toy guns and then real weapons. It said such behaviour is part of the seven-decade-old movement for Nagaland independence.

“A normal Naga boy gets his first gun—albeit toy gun—at the tender age of two years. Upon his admission to nursery school, the first artwork is to attempt drawing a gun with a pencil. As the years run their course, the boy eventually accumulates an arsenal of toy weapons of all shapes and sizes at home. As an adult, every single Naga, worth his salt, dreams of holding a real automatic or semi-automatic weapon, even for a photograph. The thrill of holding a gleaming real weapon, although momentarily, in hands for first time files one with pride,” the ministry of the parallel government said.

Then the outfit admits, “Yes, guns and Nagas have been synonymous for seven decades.”

The NSCN(U) then connected the incidents with the ongoing Naga talks.

It said, “It is exactly the reason that government of India and Nagas are trying to find a solution to Indo-Naga political problem. Gun culture became necessary because Nagas had to defend their land against forceful occupation. Spear, machete were our early weapons and our culture, but Nagas had to upgrade themselves to arms because primitive weapons could not help us defend our land.”

By connecting the wedding photograph incident with the larger issue of peace talks, the NSCN(U) sought to put considerable pressure on R.N. Ravi, who is also interlocutor, and said, “Gun culture must end, as the governor rightly stated ‘it is unacceptable’... Naga people do agree that honourable and acceptable political solution to Indo-Naga political problem will certainly end gun culture the moment long-awaited solution is arrived [at].”

The governor’s house yet to react to the statement issued by the outfit.

However, a senior police officer of Nagaland told THE WEEK, “Since the case has been registered, there will be probe and court will take a final call.”