Naga political issue: NSCN (IM) agrees to resume talks with Government of India

Our Reporter

Dimapur, Sep. 17 (EMN): The NSCN (IM) has agreed to resume the peace talks with the government of India after the negotiations came to a grinding halt following the India’s interlocutor AK Mishra’s hectic parleys with various Naga political groups (NPGs) in Nagaland this April and later in New Delhi.

The Co-convenor of Parliamentary Core Committee on Naga Political Issue, TR Zeliang, who is also the chairman of UDA, told this to journalists after the committee’s meeting with the leaders of NSCN (IM) at Police Complex, Chümoukedima, on Saturday.

The meeting was held days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked the 11-member delegation of the Parliamentary Core Committee on Naga Political Issue, who came to the national capital earlier this week to give a “final push” to solve the Naga issue before the state assembly election, to convince the NSCN (IM) to ink the final solution.

He said there was ‘nothing new’ in Saturday’s meeting but they had conveyed to the NSCN (IM) what needed to be shared to them after the committee’s meeting with Assam Chief Minister of Himanta Biswas Sharma on September 7 and Amit Shah on September 12.

On the delegation’s recent visit to New Delhi, he said that they wanted to meet both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah but the PM had directed the home minister to meet them.

He said that the NSCN (IM) is “unhappy” with government of India’s interlocutor for Naga peace talks AK Mishra, alleging that he had “omitted some of the political important points which were included in the formulation paper of (former interlocutor) RN Ravi”, so the delegation had conveyed the same to Shah and Mishra.

Zeliang said the core committee had requested the NSCN (IM) to resume the talk and “they have agreed so the NSCN (IM) will move to Delhi and resume the talk this month”.

“If the talk is to be based on Framework Agreement and the formulation paper submitted by RN Ravi and AK Mishra altogether, then they are willing to continue to talk,” he said.

He also clarified that the task of the core committee is to convey the ‘feelings’ of Naga political groups to the government of India (GOI) and vice versa, so “in no way we are part of the negotiation”. He said arriving at a conclusion to the political talks entirely depends on the negotiating parties.

Ball in GoI’s court — Raising

Member of Collective Leadership of NSCN (IM) Rh Raising also confirmed that they were ‘leaving for talks with the government of India soon’.

Further, he said that the ball is in the court of GoI and not in the core committee or the NSCN (IM). “It is the GoI who is to decide, and we have been waiting for their response.”

“The talk is in the process, and it has to be settled on the table between GoI and NSCN (IM), he added.

It may be mentioned that the stalemate in the Naga peace process continues as the NSCN (IM) has been firm on its demand for a separate Naga constitution and a flag as part of the final solution, while the government of India is not willing to give in to the demand.

To facilitate the inking of the final settlement, the parliamentary core committee on Naga political issue led by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had met with Shah in Delhi earlier this week. The committee also submitted its July 16 resolution to Shah and Mishra.

To end the decades-old Naga political issue, the government of India had signed ceasefire with almost all the NPGs and had been holding peace talks for several years. It signed Framework Agreement with the NSCN (IM) in 2015 and then Agreed Position with the Working Committee, Naga National Political Groups (WC-NNPG) but no solution in sight till date.