Mokokchung, February 24 (MTNews): With Prime Minister slated to visit Nagaland on February 24, the Nagaland Public Action Committee (NPAC) in an open letter issued on Friday, February 23, has urged the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi to tell the Naga people the “truth” about how GoI is treating the Naga political negotiations.

 

Noting that the Naga political talks between the Gol and the Naga political negotiators is a story of 26 years running, the Committee stated that during these years, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), including tribal bodies and the Church have submitted memorandums after memorandums urging him to resolve the Naga issue decisively “since the people of Nagaland are ready to welcome it.”

 

However, the committee observed that “in the wisdom of the Gol, it is considered that non-resolution of the Naga political issue is the better option for the ruling party in particular and for the country in general.”

 

It reminded how the Nagas were given a “false promise” that the political issue would be resolved within 18 months’ time following the signing of the Framework Agreement with the NSCN-IM in 2015 and Agreed Position with the WC NNPGs in 2017.

 

Stating how those promises have now become a “damp squib”, they recalled how during the 2018 State Assembly election, the BJP pacified the Nagaland citizens with the “famously infamous maxim ‘Election for Solution’ which remains to be a mere jocularity.”

 

The Committee further noted that based on the principles of the Agreed Position and Framework Agreement, “the Gol and the Naga negotiators could overcome all the impediments and contours by exhaustively and mutually completed the process of negotiations on October 31, 2019, giving a high hope to the people that true peace is finally ready for inking and implementation.”

 

“Whereas, since the sole power to give the final call to the Naga negotiators to sign the agreement with the GoI lies with the latter, the political solution was considered secondary despite all those 26 years of political investments, and thus parked the Naga Political issue at a forlorn location,” NPAC said. “Undermining the plight and the sufferings of the citizens of Nagaland under the weight of elongated political negotiations by the Gol is discriminous to the very existence of the people of Nagaland,” the NPAC added.

 

The Committee alleged that the GoI is once again trying to woo the voters in Nagaland with the same old promise that the Naga Political issue would be resolved soon after the State Assembly elections.

 

Quoting Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remark on his recent visit to Mon and Tuensang, where he said, “Our aim is to make peace talks successful and solve the Naga political problem quickly,” the NPAC expressed how ‘disheartening’ it was to observe that the political negotiations are “being soft-peddled and kept alive by the Gol so as to use it as a political plank and fishing bait after every 5 years.”

 

The NPAC said that the “ground was ripe and ready for reception of the political solution” at the end of the 13th house of NLA. However, it said that the chance was allowed to lapse.

 

The NPAC maintained that the Gol is “again trying to brainwash the voters with the promise that the issue would be resolved soon post elections.”

 

Therefore, it called upon the Prime Minister to be honest with the people of Nagaland as to how exactly the Gol is treating the Naga political negotiations.

 

“We urge the PM to tell us the truth and not the reiteration of rhetoric. Indeed, the time is overdue for the GoI to make it either successful or end the matter in a failure; but not the inconclusive business as the time has come for the Nagas to know what lies in our future,” the NPAC concluded.

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