The Government of India has sent a “missive” to the United Naga Council (UNC) for talks on the issues of Free Movement Regime (FMR) and border fencing, Newmai News Network reported on Wednesday. The Central government has reportedly requested the UNC to decide a convenient date and come to Delhi for talks, though no official date has been finalized.
Naga leaders told Newmai News Network that they were reluctant to travel to Delhi. “Rather, we had pressed the Centre that the talks should be done in Naga areas. However, the Government of India representatives had expressed their difficulties to come to the Naga areas owing to various engagements and reasons. One reason is that three ministries will be involved in the talks,” the leaders said. A separate source, however, added that “it is likely that the UNC leaders will go to New Delhi for talks soon.”
According to UNC leaders, they had also pressed the Governor of Manipur during a meeting in Imphal on August 16 that in the event of the talks, “the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of Defence should participate.”
The development comes in the backdrop of the UNC’s “emergency presidential council meeting” held on August 11 at Senapati, which was attended by presidents of the “Naga tribe hohos” under the Council. The meeting resolved to “announce the mode of agitation and modus operandi within the 15 days’ time” following the lapse of their ultimatum served to the government.
On July 22, the UNC along with the Naga Women Union (NWU), the All Naga Students’ Association, Manipur (ANSAM), and the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights-South (NPMHR-S) had jointly submitted a 20-day ultimatum to the Government of India. The ultimatum, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, was submitted through the Governor of Manipur.
The joint memorandum had stated: “We submit this ultimatum with deep concern and anguish, expressing our strong resentment against abrogation of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the imaginary Indo-Myanmar border and the accelerated ongoing border fencing construction across the ancestral Naga homeland without due consultation with the affected indigenous communities and violating the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) particularly Articles 8, 26, and 36 thereof, endorsed by India.”
(With inputs from Newmai News Network)