NEW DELHI: The Nagaland Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) collective leadership is none too pleased with the Central government after two days of talks — on May 12 and 13. The Centre’s interlocutor did not yield any conclusive result on the vexed issue of a separate flag and constitution.
What has annoyed the NSCN(IM) is that the Union home ministry has “quietly” called in other senior Nagaland-based leaders of all hues, including CM Neiphiu Rio, former Congress CM and former governor of Gujarat and Maharashtra S C Jamir to Delhi to make the ongoing peace talks “broad-based”.
Shah had invited Jamir and convened a meeting of a Core Committee comprising the three leaders among others. Incidentally, Khitovi Zimomi, convenor of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG), an umbrella organisation of erstwhile armed rebels outfits, has been in Delhi since May 13.
An NSCN(IM) spokesperson told this newspaper that “with Amit Shah giving extra importance to Jamir at this stage, nothing good is going to come out towards Naga solution. When a treacherous person like Jamir is consulted, what else can we expect?”
“There is no question that the NSCN(IM) will walk out of the talks, but why is the government trying to find an escape route from the May 2015 Framework Agreement that was signed in full view of the world?,” the spokesperson emphasised.
The NSCN(IM) sees the arrival of a host of Naga leaders as a “consultation process but mainly to put pressure on the outfit”. The NSCN(IM) spokesperson was quick to add that “we will hardly succumb to any pressure”. Asked whether the Centre sought to isolate the NSCN(IM), the spokesperson said, “The government knows only too well that signing an agreement without us will be meaningless.”