Centre invites NSCN-I-M leaders for talks on Naga political issue early next month

Kohima, Sep 26 (IANS) The Centre has invited the leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) to Delhi to resume talks on the Naga political issue during the first week of October, group sources said on Thursday.

An NSCN-IM leader said that the Union government requested the Naga outfit leaders to visit New Delhi to resume talks which stalled for quite some time.

"The ball is currently in the court of the Centre. The NSCN-I-M leadership is waiting for the Centre’s decision about our demands," the leading Naga outfit’s leader said.

On September 12, an all-important consultative meeting, convened by the state Home Department, in Kohima, discussed the long pending Naga political issue and demanded the appointment of a new ministerial-level interlocutor to take forward the talks with all the Naga groups.

Regarding the demand for a new ministerial-level interlocutor, the NSCN-IM leader declined to comment and said that the matter remained under discussion.

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio chaired the September 12 meeting, where both Deputy Chief Ministers T.R Zeliang and Yanthungo Patton, Assembly Speaker Sharingain Longkumer, all the Ministers, the state's Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members, all MLAs, all the state Advisors, the Chief Secretary, along with other senior officials of the state government attended. A Home Department official said that more than 45 NGOs, civil society organisations, including the influential Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation, Konyak Union, Lotha Hoho, Naga Mothers’s Association, Eastern Nagaland women organisations, various Gazetted Officers’ Association, Naga Students’ Federation, Gaon Bura (village head) Federation, and the All Nagaland College Students Union participated in the crucial meeting.

Participants in the meeting urged the Naga groups having parallel talks with the Centre to unite and approach it with a “single document” for an early solution. During the consultative meeting, the stakeholders held the view that the two groups holding dialogue with the Centre – the NSCN-IM and the Working Committee of Naga National Political Groups (WC-NNPGs) – should try to have a single document so that there is no confusion over the solution.

According to the official, the state's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) earlier this month decided to hold consultative meetings with apex and influential tribal bodies and civil society organisations on taking forward the Naga political issue.

The Union government signed the vital Framework Agreement with the NSCN-IM, in 2015 and also signed the Agreed Position with the Working Committee of Naga National Political Groups in 2017. More than 90 rounds of meetings were held between the government and the Naga groups over the decades-old unresolved Naga political issue. The NSCN-IM has remained unyielding on its demand for a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas as well as integration of Naga-inhabited areas spread over four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, besides Myanmar.

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