HT Correspondent
Dimapur, Nov 23: The Conference of the Civil Society Organisations of Nagaland said neither the Government of India nor the Naga negotiators should take the people for a ride, saying 25 years of political negotiation is a long time to resolve the Naga issue.
In a representation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi dated November 18, which was made available to the media on Tuesday, 10 civil society organisations of the State said: “If 25 years of investment on peace process cannot bring out any solution, we see no reason as to why it cannot be recalled and let the people decide their own destiny.”
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According to them, there can never be a better opportunity for the Centre to resolve the decades-old Naga political issue than “what is now at the disposal of the Naga negotiators”.
The representation stressed that it is imperative to elicit the ground realities that the 25 years of negotiation have taken immense toll on the people of Nagaland in particular.
“By any standard, be it physical developments or be it the wellbeing of the citizens, Nagaland has retrogressed by decades under the weight of elongated negotiations,” it said.
They urged the PM not to further delay the result of the negotiations. They also appealed to him to give a call to the negotiators to respond as it is time for any negotiator to take it or leave it.
The representation further said when any Naga political group is given further extension of ceasefire, the Centre should provide fund for its maintenance as the public of Nagaland are no longer capable to bear the brunt of inordinate negotiations indefinitely.
On their part, the civil society organisations assured that they are ever ready to welcome the solution which is in the interest of both India and the Nagas.
They acknowledged the ‘relentless initiatives’ of the PM which alone could bring the political negotiations between the Centre and the two Naga negotiators to the level of inclusiveness and its dynamical completion of formal talk on October 31, 2019.
The representation added that the people of Nagaland believe that the process of negotiations during the last quarter of century has bridged the gaps, the contours of contentions leveled and left nothing unturned except the signing of the agreement.
The organisations also said should the negotiations become a fiasco, despite the stupendous sacrifices of the public of Nagaland, it can only rub salt to the injury.
