Meet S Phangnon Konyak, Nagaland's 1st woman MP to preside over Rajya Sabha

The first woman MP from Nagaland to preside over Rajya Sabha, Konyak will likely become a leading BJP woman's voice from the Northeast, soft but insistent

Shingwang Phangnon Konyak, the first woman from Nagaland to be appointed as one of the vice-chairpersons in the Rajya Sabha, thankfully, has no tattoos. Konyaks, considered one of the fiercest warrior tribes in Nagaland, were the last to give up the practice of head-hunting – severing heads of enemies after attacking rival tribes. The last head-hunting case was reported in the 1980s. Head-hunting qualifies members of the tribe to tattoo their face and/or chest. Phangnon concedes that she has no tattoos but says proudly that others in her tribe have “earned that honour”.

That’s India for you.

When she became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 2022, Konyak was the first woman legislator in the upper house from Nagaland since the state was formed in 1963. She is articulate yet grounded in tribal culture (she took oath in the Rajya Sabha in full tribal regalia) and has definite views on women empowerment and patriarchy and how she plans to break this down: She was among the first women in April this year allowed into a Naga ‘Morung’ (a hut in which only Naga men are allowed) and beat the log drum, again a rite of passage allowed only to Naga men. The log drum in a Morung is traditionally beaten to herald emergencies, celebrations and important happenings.

Although she has maintained a studied silence on recent events involving women in Manipur, there is no denying that the 44-year-old, who has an MA in English literature from Delhi University, is a trailblazer in her own way.

Konyak belongs to Nagaland's Oting village in Mon district and completed her schooling in Dimapur. She moved to Delhi’s Daulat Ram College for higher studies. During her college days, she was actively involved in student activism and was associated with social organisations – mostly tribal groups in Delhi of students and others feeling lonely and left out in the capital.

She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017. What motivated her is not known, but given that in her three speeches in the Rajya Sabha so far, she has referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about 24 times suggests she was deeply influenced by him. She became secretary of the Nagaland BJP unit and later the head of the party’s Mahila Morcha in a state where 88 per cent of the population is Christian. A pastor presided over the oath-taking ceremony of the new government when assembly elections installed Neiphiu Rio as chief minister earlier this year; and a choir sang the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, watched over by a benign Modi who was present at the ceremony. He would later hold up the Nagaland example to assert that Kerala too would accept the government’s credo of “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas”.

Konyak has dismissed linking Hindutva to the BJP's work in Nagaland. "Instead, my party is doing politics of development and empowerment of women. I am a devout Christian and my family elders were reverends and pastors. Hindutva has nothing to do with politics. Religion is personal," she told a Catholic church publication recently.

Konyak belongs to a tribe (and district) that has resisted the rise of the insurgent group, National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), which has been agitating for a Naga ‘nation’ or Nagalim since the 1960s. NSCN is dominated by the Manipur-based Tangkhul Nagas – whereas the Konyak Nagas believe that areas like the Mon district need development funds, not necessarily a new nation. Some Konyak groups have ‘infiltrated’ NSCN. But by and large, the tribe has cast its lot with the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), which is in negotiation (for the longest time) with the NSCN via the Government of India for a middle path to resolve an issue that has, till recently, held vast swathes of the Northeast in the grips of an armed insurgency.

Konyak’s position on the ongoing negotiations was reflected in her speech in the Rajya Sabha (August 8, 2022) where she asked Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to reach a final agreement with NSCN IM. “Naga people want peace and a solution cutting across tribal and political lines. The people have voiced their desire democratically through various mediums and platforms” she said.

Given that she is so young (45), there is no doubt that S Phangnon Konyak will become a leading BJP woman’s voice from the Northeast, soft but insistent, like Pratima Bhoumik from Tripura. In the state, Konyak has begun rousting the lower bureaucracy to ensure central government schemes reach people. “Bridge the gap between the people and the government,” she told a district level meeting of bureaucrats recently. Never has the Northeast needed this counsel more.