Nagaland Tribes Council counters NSCN (IM)’s accusation against Ravi

Dimapur, Aug. 26 (EMN): The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) said the NSCN (IM)’s assertions that the government of India’s interlocutor for Naga peace talks, RN Ravi, was solely responsible for manipulation of Framework Agreement (FA) and creation of Working Committee (WC) of 7 NNPG were “wild, baseless and unfounded”.

The NTC said this in a press release issued on Wednesday, after the NSCN (IM), through a statement, accused Ravi of deleting the word “new” from the original text of FA “to justify his own narrative and circulated to 14 tribe leaders, NNPGs, NTC, and Nagaland GB Federation”.

It clarified that both the FA signed between the government of India and the NSCN (IM) and the Preamble signed with the NNPG were read out repeatedly by two participants of the meeting called by Ravi with the apex tribes hohos of Nagaland on October 18, 2019. It said the word “new” was clearly mentioned (which it said is supported by audio recording) and copies of FA and Preamble were not distributed. It went on to say that it hasn’t received any copy of the FA till date.

The NTC also clarified that nowhere Ravi created NNPG as third party against the bilateral talks of the government of India and the NSCN.

Stating that the inter-factional feuds continued even after the signing of ceasefire agreement in 1997 and no solution in sight even after years of talks with the government of India and the subsequent signing of the FA, the NTC said it realised that “any negotiation without all the NPGs involved could bring no lasting solution”.

“Under such compelling circumstances there is no other better option left but to pave a way rope in the NNPG for inclusive negotiation with the GOI for sustainable peace out of political negotiation in the greater interest of the Nagas as a whole,” NTC’s statement read.

“Towards this end the NTC decided to mediate through its Mediation Committee amongst NNPG of those who were not taken on board for the long drawn 18 years political negotiation with GOI,” it said, adding that it was the NTC and the NGBF that approached the GOI to have inclusive negotiation with the NNPG, which eventually took place in 2017.

The NTC also sought to know who the “anti-Naga forces in collusion with Ravi led forces” are, as mentioned in Convener of Steering Committee, NSCN, Maj (Retd) Hutovi Chishi’s recent statement which was published in some sections of the media. “It is unfortunate for the convenor, Steering Committee, NSCN (I-M) to misconstrue the unification efforts of NTC and NGBF as anti-Naga,” it said.

‘The NTC therefore, makes it loud and clear to all and sundry that it has been working dedicatedly without prejudice and malice towards any individual or group of individuals but always with noble objectives to sow the seed of understanding and unity amongst our people. It is futile for anyone to blame the Interlocutor Shri R.N. Ravi for the formation of the WC, NNPGs,’ the press release stated.