Meetings to seal Naga deal

Put together, a top government official said, the talks and recommendations are part of an ambitious series of interlocking moves aimed at bringing about an end to the multiple insurgencies in the North-East.

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“Let’s look at it this way, the bride and groom are now in complete agreement on next steps. The problem is that their families and the baraatis [wedding guests] have to brought on board,” said another official familiar with the negotiations.

The unpublicised negotiations with NSCN-IM comes in the context of criticism that the still-secret Framework Agreement, signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was unravelling even before its text had been made public.
Last month, NSCN-IM chief Thuingaleng Muviah told supporters in Dimapur that the agreement would enable “sharing the sovereign powers”. The reference to sovereignty was interpreted to mean the NSCN-IM was still committed to secession.

However, an official familiar with the negotiations said the criticism was based on a misreading of Muviah’s position. The Framework Agreement, he said, speaks of “sharing powers”, and asserts that “sovereignty lies with the people” — both concepts drawn from the Constitution of India.

According to a senior government official, the agreement’s text specifies three guiding principals for talks now underway between the NSCN-IM and R N Ravi, the chief of the Joint Intelligence Council and the Prime Minister’s interlocutor for the peace talks.

The text binds both sides in acceptance that “there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence”, said the official. It contains recognition of “the unique history of the Nagas”. In turn, the NSCN-IM acknowledges the “comprehensiveness and intricacies of the Indian system”.

“Put together, this means that while the Indian government accepts the Naga case for special rights, the NSCN-IM in turn sees space for these to be met within the Constitution,” said the official.

Muviah’s Dimapur speech also underlined the need for compromise, the official said. “Let us understand together that now it is a matter of negotiation,” he said, adding that since it is a matter of negotiation, the Nagas “cannot expect 100 out of 100”.

Long-standing NSCN-IM demands for Naga-majority areas in Manipur and Assam to be territorially integrated into Nagaland had also figured in talks, the official added.

However, the Government had made clear that this could not be imposed without democratic consultations with Manipur and Assam, where Naga claims to territory have provoked violence.