Indo-Naga talks: PMO ‘disturbed’; IB chief to reset talks

Eastern Mirror Desk

Dimapur, Aug. 18 (EMN): The prime minister’s office (PMO) is “disturbed” over the standoff in the Naga peace talks between RN Ravi, the Centre’s interlocutor, and “various rebel groups over the past few months”; and has asked the Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief to take over, according to an NDTV report on Tuesday.

The director of IB, Arvind Kumar, has been tasked to bring the apparently derailed talks back on track, it reported.

“Over the last six years RN Ravi, in his capacity as interlocutor, had been talking to various Naga groups. But in the past 10 or 11 months, things have not been going well,” a senior government official said.

According to the official, the PMO has also asked IB Special Director Akshay Kumar Mishra to join the firefighting effort.

It went on to state that opposition parties continue to target the Centre over the framework agreement reached with the NSCN (IM) in 2015.

“Delhi had promised new cultural identity for Nagas without changing territorial boundaries. But as there are many tensions between tribes too, nothing substantial has come out so far,” an official said.

However, the Centre has refused to back down. “Talks will go on as the government cannot be threatened,” a senior bureaucrat declared.

As part of the renewed effort, the North East Division of the IB also has new officers, it reported. Mandeep Tulli, a 1999 batch officer who until now was posted in Manipur’s Imphal, is back in Delhi as Joint Director (North East). Nagaland has also got a new SIB (State Intelligence Bureau) head in 1996-batch officer Ritu Mishra, it added.