GUWAHATI: Insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) has sought the resumption of Naga peace talks at the Prime Minister level without any pre-condition and in a third country.
The outfit expressed its desire for the talks in a letter which its general secretary and key negotiator Thuingaleng Muivah had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seven months ago. The NSCN-IM said it had released the letter to the media on Monday as the outfit, being accountable to the Nagas, wanted to inform them of the delay and the lack of response from the Prime Minister’s Office “to our people”.
“On the official invitation of the GoI (Government of India), we first arrived in India in 2002 and after our subsequent visits, we have since 2010 patiently stayed in India to conclude an acceptable and honourable political settlement. As mentioned, several rounds of talks with the Prime Ministers of India and the representatives of the Gol have already been completed and the unique outcome was the signing of the Framework Agreement (FA) on August 3, 2015...
“However, in the given circumstances and in order to save the political dialogue, the talks should resume at the PM level without pre-condition and outside India in a third country. And if our stay in India is no more welcome, all necessary arrangements must be made for us to leave India and the political talks
be resumed in a third country,” Muivah, who is the outfit’s “Ato Kilonser” (Prime Minister), had written to Modi.
Stating that most of the important issues, except for the Naga flag and Naga constitution, have been already resolved, Muivah brought to Modi’s notice “some matters of serious concern” regarding the activities of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), National Investigation Agency and Assam Rifles.
“As you are well aware, 22 years of political negotiation had started at the PM’s level without pre-condition and outside India. We had come to India on the invitation of the Gol. However, we are totally shocked and surprised that even after more than two decades of political negotiation, the MHA and its agencies have become obnoxious,” Muivah wrote.
He said it was shocking and surprising that the Centre started branding and accusing the NSCN-IM members as “terrorists” and with impunity, its agencies were arresting them.
“The activities of the MHA are deliberate and calculated policies of the Gol to downgrade the political negotiation to India's internal law and order issue. The Nagas are observing a repeat of the militarization and a consciously carried out state terrorism in the Naga areas and against the Naga people through a
show of force, arrest and allegation against NSCN members...The design and intent of the MHA and its agencies are unjustifiable and a serious provocation that goes against the principle and spirit of the political negotiation and the FA,” Muivah wrote.
He said the activities of the representative of the PMO RN Ravi had become a matter of great concern after the latter was appointed as the Governor of Nagaland. The NSCN-IM leader said Ravi was consciously functioning within the law and order purview of the Constitution of India which was a deliberate
deviation from his appointment as the Centre’s interlocutor in Naga talks.
The NSCN-IM had signed a ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 1997. At the initial stage, several rounds of peace talks were held abroad.