Th Muivah
File photo of Th Muivah, general secretary of NSCN (IM).

DIMAPUR: The NSCN-IM has said there is no documentary evidence appended by the government of India’s representative and the Naga political groups that talks had been concluded.

It said had the Indo-Naga political talks been concluded on October 31, 2019, as repeatedly mentioned by the Parliamentary Committee on the Naga Political Issue (PCoNPI), a joint statement should have been the norm and not a unilateral statement by former interlocutor and former Nagaland governor RN Ravi.

“Even the NSCN could have taken the pleasure to share with the Naga people with much jubilation. Ironically, this is not the case. Ravi may have concluded the talks with NNPGs. But that is not the story with NSCN,” the outfit said in a statement.

The outfit said it finds no fault with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the extra pride in solving the Naga political issue, but the non-action plan on competency had made the Framework Agreement a non-starter.

“This is the crux of the delay in Naga political solution,” it said.

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Saying that Ravi used strong words against the NSCN talk team to conclude the talk by October 31, 2019, the statement said it was in fact an ugly ultimatum day served to the NSCN by the government of India with threats and warfare psychosis.

However, the NSCN was unnerved and stood their ground and flatly refused to toe the line of Naga solution as drawn by Ravi, it added.

The NSCN also alleged that Ravi miserably failed to work out the competency as per the principle of the Framework Agreement.

It quoted the last paragraph of the Framework Agreement: “The two sides agreed that within this framework agreement details and execution plan will be worked out and implemented shortly”.

But Ravi never picked up the follow-up action on competency, it said.

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The NSCN also stated that after October 31, 2019, it had formal talks on November 9, 2019, and again on January 30, 2020.

It said the Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015, had officially resolved the principle issues, adding Prime Minister Modi himself had made known to the world that he had solved the longest insurgency movement in Southeast Asia.

Quoting the 3rd paragraph of Modi’s statement, the NSCN said: “It is a matter of great satisfaction that dialogue between the Government of India and the NSCN has successfully concluded and we are confident it will provide for an enduring inclusive new relationship of peaceful co-existence of the two entities.”

The sore point is the non-action on competency, it added.

The NSCN said the PCoNPI members should exercise intuition to tell them (government of India) that something is amiss about October 31, 2019.

“We also need to follow political maturity and pragmatism and go by our established respect to find the Naga political solution, so near, yet gone missing,” it said.

Bhadra Gogoi is Northeast Now Correspondent in Nagaland. He can be reached at: [email protected]