BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Monday expressed concern that the Central government’s negotiations with NSCN (I-M) to resolve the Naga problem has run into rough weather. “From the recent statements made by those involved in the negotiations, it is apparent that distrust has crept in,” the JDS supremo said in a statement.
Gowda said the Naga ceasefire agreement in 1997, which followed his meeting with Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah in Zurich, in February 1997, was a result of constructive diplomacy. “We should ensure that the progress made in the last 23 years by successive governments does not get forsaken now,” he said.
The people of the North East deserve to live in harmony and witness economic progress, he said.