The Working Committee, Naga National Political Groups (WC, NNPGs) on Thursday strongly opposed the reported demand for the appointment of a Union minister-level interlocutor for the Indo-Naga political issue, describing it as “a test of the Naga people’s patience” and an attempt to undermine an already negotiated political solution.
The statement came a day after the Nagaland government’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) reiterated its demand for the Government of India to appoint a ministerial-level interlocutor to facilitate the Naga peace process. The PAC, chaired by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, had also resolved to engage stakeholders to prepare a roadmap towards an early political settlement. Briefing journalists after the meeting, PAC Member Secretary and Minister for Power and Parliamentary Affairs KG Kenye had said the committee believed a ministerial-level interlocutor would help build confidence among the negotiating parties and ensure that the state’s concerns were effectively conveyed to the Centre.
READ | Nagaland: PAC reiterates demand for ministerial interlocutor; Seeks roadmap for Naga political settlement
In a statement, the WC, NNPGs questioned the rationale behind the demand, saying that Indian ministers such as Oscar Fernandes, Prithviraj Chavan and Raghupathi had served as a ministerial team on the Indo-Naga issue in the early 2000s but “achieved nothing.”
The WC, NNPGs asserted that the Indo-Naga political negotiations had “officially recorded” as having successfully concluded and maintained that the appointment of an interlocutor, if required, “is the prerogative of the negotiating entities and not facilitators.”
“GoI-NNPG talks have concluded. No such arrangement ended. The motive is to sabotage the already negotiated Indo-Naga political solution. The mischief is a grave crime. History will not forgive the saboteurs,” it said.
The WC, NNPGs described the demand for a minister-level interlocutor as “extremely insensible and discourteous to the Naga public,” alleging that it disregarded the efforts and sacrifices made by both the Government of India and Naga interlocutors over many years and reflected “bankruptcy of ideas, dispassionate remarks and antics against the people.”
Criticism of Nagaland government
Accusing the facilitators of “speaking the language of negotiating entities,” the WC, NNPGs alleged that they had “commercialized the Naga political movement.”
It said it would welcome them if they resigned from their constitutional posts and formed a new “Naga National Political Party” to begin fresh negotiations with a new interlocutor.
Questioning how elected representatives could impose conditions on negotiations that had already concluded, the group said the opposition-less Nagaland Legislative Assembly was formed to facilitate an early Indo-Naga political solution.
“If so, it is high time for Nagaland state government to convene a ‘Special assembly session and appeal to the GoI for implementation of early solution’; otherwise they can officially declare ‘they do not accept either Framework Agreement or Agreed Position’,” it stated.
The WC, NNPGs further said that if elected representatives wished to handle the Indo-Naga political issue themselves, they should dissolve the Legislative Assembly and present their own demands, whether for a new interlocutor or other political matters, “if they really want to act as negotiators.”
It alleged that “elected men doing the job of saboteurs is neither conforming to the Indian constitutional framework nor respecting the spirit and essence of negotiated Indo-Naga agreement. They are fomenting an anti-national narrative.”
Status Paper and implementation
The WC, NNPGs said the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Chief Minister of Nagaland were fully aware of the contents of both the Framework Agreement (FA) and the Agreed Position, including “its competencies, down to the dot, pertaining to the negotiated matters of the Indo-Naga issue.”
It also stated that since 2019, the WC, NNPGs had publicly presented what it described as the “best practical solution” to the Naga political issue through its Status Paper, which it said carefully outlines the political and administrative arrangements for Nagaland and Naga ancestral territories in other states without ambiguity.
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Questioning whether the Nagaland government had analysed the negotiated documents, the group said it had not received any official feedback on its Status Paper from the state government.
The only response it cited was former Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi’s address to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly on January 17, 2021, in which he stated: “The Negotiations have successfully concluded, there is now need for efforts to build on the substantial gains made so far and to move for final inking.”
“Having seen and heard enough theatrics, the demand for a minister level interlocutor is an insult to the Naga conscience,” the WC, NNPGs said.
