NEW DELHI: After nearly two years, talks between the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issak-Muivah faction) and the Centre government is set to resume on September 20 in Dimapur. Talks from the government will be led by AK Mishra. This indicates that Naga talks interlocutor RN Ravi, who was recently appointed Tamil Nadu governor, has been sidelined. The Naga group had complained against him to PM Narendra Modi.
The last formal talks between the NSCN (IM) and Ravi took place in January, 2020. After that, the two sides held an informal meeting in New Delhi in August last year. Ravi did not attend that meeting. Ravi, who continues to be the interlocutor in Naga peace talks, is not going to be present in this meeting, sources told this newspaper. They added that Mishra, a former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, is likely to be appointed the new interlocutor of Naga peace talks.
The development comes after the Centre signed a ceasefire agreement with the NSCN faction led by Niki Sumi. NSCN-IM questioned the government on the September 8 agreement with the Sumi group and claimed it is the only authentic political organisation representing the Naga people. It said that signing of ceasefire agreements with “its surrogate factions” was a futile exercise.
Talks ran into trouble after Ravi allegedly circulated a ‘doctored’ version of the framework agreement signed in 2015 between Issak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and Ravi in the presence of PM Modi. In between, there were bitter exchanges between Ravi and NSCN-IM. Following that, Home Minister Amit Shah deputed then Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio and a Naga social activist to meet Muivah in Delhi to understand their grievances.
It is learnt that the trio including Sarma, who is believed to be a trusted lieutenant of Shah, convinced the latter that Ravi should be relived of his responsibilities as Naga interlocutor. After the feedback given by the trio, Mishra was roped in with a senior serving IB official to continue the engagements with NSCN-IM. They are believed to have held informal meetings with the senior leadership of the insurgent group.
For the last year, Muivah has maintained that only Ravi’s removal from the post of interlocutor would ensure that talks will proceed. “The NSCN had exercised much restraint against the systematic ultimatum issued by the representative of GoI (Ravi) since July, 2019, which was replaced during the talks on October 31, 2019. The representative of GoI has acted very irresponsible and disrespectful (sic) to the Naga talk teams during the talks on January 30 in Dimapur, referring to the NSCN proposal submitted on January 18 as stupid and contaminated,” stated Muivah’s February letter to the PM.