KOHIMA, Jan 24: The Nagaland government is keeping “fingers crossed” on finding a solution to the decades-old Naga political issue in 2025, a senior minister has said.
Negotiations have been underway between the Centre and Naga groups over the matter.
“We are keeping our fingers crossed,” senior minister and government spokesperson K G Kenye told PTI.
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“We came to know through media reports that they (Naga groups) had gone to Delhi (for talks with the Centre). The last consultative meeting between the state government and the Naga civil society organisations was held in September. The Union government later invited them to Delhi for further discussion,” he said.
Kenye, however, said he was unaware of the outcome of the discussion.
“Some developments have taken place, but both sides have agreed to not divulge the details to people yet. We have seen the Centre’s interlocutor, A K Mishra, had recently paid a visit to NSCN-IM general secretary Th Muivah at his camp,” he said.
Mishra was in Nagaland last week to hold talks with the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) over its demand for the Frontier Nagaland Territory (FNT) comprising six districts of the state.
Asked about the outcome of the deliberation of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on NSCN-IM supremo Muivah declaring to go back to the jungles if no positive progress is made in the talks, Kenye said the meeting was to apprise Shah of the situation that people were getting restive over the issue, and also to take stock of the status of the dialogues.
Asserting that nobody should be alarmed about it, he said Muivah’s move could be a way of asserting the outfit’s position and trying to draw the attention of the authorities.
The NSCN-IM has been maintaining that the framework agreement signed by the outfit and the central government in 2015 is the “only acceptable basis” to find a solution to the Naga political issue.
The agreement happened after over 80 rounds of negotiations spanning 18 years, with the first breakthrough in 1997 when the ceasefire agreement was sealed after decades of insurgency in Nagaland, which started soon after Independence.
Besides the framework agreement with the NSCN-IM, the Centre also inked an Agreed Position with Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) comprising seven organisations in December 2017.
However, a final solution is yet to see the light of the day mainly because of the unwillingness of the government to accept the NSCN-IM’s persistent demand for a separate flag and constitution, officials said. (PTI)
