Guwahati: Negotiations between the Narendra Modi government and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak Muivah (NSCN-IM) will resume from next month, intelligence sources told ThePrint.
A “preparatory meeting” is scheduled to be held Thursday at an undisclosed location in Assam between an eight-member team of NSCN-IM and the Centre’s representatives, sources from both sides said.
The team will then proceed to Delhi for further deliberations beginning 3 July.
Since 2020, NSCN-IM general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah has been travelling between Delhi and Dimapur for “health reasons”. In October last year, he was flown in a chartered flight to Delhi reportedly for talks.
Six months later, talks resumed in April with A. K. Mishra, the government-appointed interlocutor, meeting NSCN-IM leaders at Chumoukedima in Nagaland.
“Talks have been going on, and the NSCN reciprocates and responds — as and when invited by Government of India,” senior NSCN-IM leader and deputy kilonser (cabinet minister) Kehoi Swu told ThePrint.
“The Indian government proposed and invited the NSCN leaders — late Isak Chisi Swu, Chairman of NSCN, and the General Secretary (Ato Kilonser) Thuingaleng Muivah to come to India for political talks. The NSCN will not request the Government of India for talks,” he added.
Core demands & roadblocks
Talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM have entered the 26th year, but the peace process remains stuck over the outfit’s demand for a separate Naga national flag and Constitution in recognition of the “Naga history spanning over 70 years”.
While the peace talks supposedly concluded on the Centre’s deadline of October 2019, the NSCN-IM reportedly said in July last year that there is “no documentary evidence” to support it.
The government had issued a statement then, explaining any settlement with the Naga groups would be reached only after consultations with all stakeholders, including neighbouring states of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
During the negotiations for a ‘permanent solution’, the NSCN-IM’s insistence for a separate flag and constitution for proposed ‘Nagalim’ emerged as the biggest hurdle in inking the Naga accord. It also started losing trust in the government appointed interlocutor, R.N. Ravi, while accusing him of “polarising the Naga society instead of uniting the Nagas”.
By July 2020, the outfit refused to interact with Ravi, government sources had confirmed. In August, the NSCN-IM released copies of the confidential Framework Agreement and insisted on changing Ravi, who was also the Nagaland Governor. It accused him of deleting a key word from the original agreement and of sharing the “doctored” agreement with various Naga groups.
In October that year, the NSCN-IM released a letter written by Muivah to Modi on 25 February stating that Ravi’s appointment as the Nagaland governor in 2019 was a “deliberate deviation from his appointment as the representative of the Government of India for the peace talks”.
Subsequently, the government appointed Mishra, the former special director of Intelligence Bureau and MHA adviser for North East, as the interlocutor in September 2021 to continue the talks.
The NSCN-IM remains steadfast in its core demands, as it released a calendar in February this year with the picture of the Naga national flag captioned — ‘Naga National Flag & Constitution (Yehzabo) not negotiable’.
“Naga Flag is a symbol of national pride and identity, a symbol of our history — one people and one nation. It provides us spiritual guidance and reminds us of the courage and sacrifices of Naga martyrs. It reflects national sentiment and honour,” the description read, highlighting the importance of both the flag and the Yehzabo.
“The Constitution (Yehzabo) is a crowning achievement of Naga political movement (History). It is our laws and beliefs by which our God’s given Naga Nation is governed. It lays down the principles and guidelines to show the way forward to our future.”
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Differences among stakeholders
Even as the Centre intends to bring various Naga groups together and sign one principle agreement, the fundamental differences between the NSCN-IM and the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) remain a hurdle towards achieving a ‘permanent solution’.
Comprising seven Naga insurgent outfits that are also party to the peace talks, the NNPGs have reiterated their commitment to the “Agreed Position” signed between the Working Committee of NNPGs and the Centre on 17 November, 2017.
In the wake of the Manipur ethnic conflict involving Kuki-Zomi tribals and non-tribal Meitei community, the fault lines between the Naga tribes have emerged yet again with the NNPGs pointing out the “blood relations” of Tangkhul Nagas of Manipur with their “Meitei brothers”.
Taking a dig at Muivah, the Working Committee of the NNPGs issued a press statement on 25 June, stating that “a person/persons from Manipur cannot and has no right to lecture on the political future of Nagaland”. “Simply put, their home addresses will always remain in Manipur,” it said.
Muviah is a Tangkhul Naga from Somdal village in Manipur’s Ukhrul district.
In its statement, the NNPGs referred to an article written by Rh. Raising, Member, Collective Leadership (NSCN-IM), titled ‘Land and Water, the solid rock of politics’ in Nagaland Post on 15 June.
While referring to “refugees, nomadic people and immigrants” in Manipur, suggesting the demand for a separate administration raised by the Kuki-Zomi community, Rh. Raising stated that “launching a political movement by a group of refugees or immigrants for a separate homeland or a separate state in other people’s country is an act of aggression on the inherent right of the native people and their land”.
“Claiming citizenship of a country with forgery documents from fraudsters is a crime against the state. Planting foreign populations in an occupied territory of a native people for marginalising the native people is equally an act of colonialism and expansionism to be condemned,” Raising’s article contended.
“The Naga people have their own land to belong. And this Nagalim is their portion of land from the Lord. Nagalim is home to millions of Nagas, who have been living here for thousands of years and they will continue to live here for thousands more years to come,” Raising asserted, sounding a subtle warning to any aspiration threatening their territorial integrity.
The NNPGs have called out the Tangkhul Naga leaders of NSCN-IM for “collaborating, extending moral support and assistance to their younger brothers, the Meiteis,” and terming the bloodbath and destruction as “silence of the ‘Nagalim for Christ’ propagators” against their “next door neighbours”.
However, the NSCN-IM representative called these allegations “baseless”.
“NSCN is Naga people’s based organisation — to speak out and stand for the inherent rights of the Naga. So, it is not an enemy to neither Meiteis nor Kukis. NNPG is in the hands of the Indian agencies. They are acting at the behest of the latter,” Swu told ThePrint.
Journey so far
In 1975, the Centre signed the Shillong Agreement with a moderate faction of the political organisation Naga National Council (NNC), which was formed in 1946. The NNC initially advocated a simple approach of protest, but later matured as a viable political organisation representing the grievances of the Naga tribes.
After a short spell of peace for two years, the dissident group led by then NNC general secretary Muivah, then-NNC vice-president Isak Chisi Swu and Shangnyu Shangwang Khaplang, a Hemi Naga from Myanmar who later formed the NSCN-Khaplang, rejected the pact outright, and went underground again, spending much of their time in Myanmar. This led to the creation of the NSCN, which split from their old organisation, the NNC, on 2 February 1980.
The manifesto of the NSCN was based on the principle of socialism for economic solution backed by a spiritual outlook of ‘Nagaland for Christ’. It had initially aimed to establish a sovereign ‘Nagalim’, consisting of areas inhabited by Naga people in Northeast India and Northwest Myanmar. Later, animosity developed within the leadership of the NSCN.
Eight years on, it split into the NSCN-IM and the NSCN-Khaplang in April 1988 over differences in initiating a dialogue process with the Centre. Clashes amongst these factions resulted in a large number of Nagas, including those not connected to these groups, being killed.
The NSCN-IM has been unofficially in talks with the government since 1994, while the formal talks with the Centre began only in 1997 when a ceasefire agreement was signed. In August 2015, the government signed a Framework Agreement to seek a final solution with the NSCN-IM.
The NSCN-Khaplang violated the ceasefire in 2015, but its decision led to another split and the formation of a new group, NSCN (Reformation), which entered the dialogue later.
The Centre officially extended the scope of talks with the NNPGs by signing a ‘Deed of Commitment’ in 2017. The NNPGs, including the NSCN (Reformation), the NSCN (NK) and the splinter group of the NSCN (Khango) among others, are among the seven Naga insurgent groups that are also holding talks with the central government, but separately.
The Northeastern states have been wary of the Framework Agreement the NSCN-IM leaders signed with the Indian government in 2015. The details of the agreement are yet to be revealed, despite apex tribal bodies and civil society urging for transparency. Termed ‘historic’ by PM Modi, this agreement was signed after over 80 rounds of talks between the government and various stakeholders.
Issues other than core demands
While the Naga tribes remain divided, peripheral issues have taken centrestage including the demand by the Eastern Naga People’s Organisation (ENPO) for a separate ‘Frontier Naga Territory’ comprising Nagaland’s six districts of Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator, and Tuensang.
Successive governments have allegedly paid less attention to the eastern part of the state, triggering the demand for separation.
The ENPO, spearheading this movement since 2010, is the apex body of seven dominant tribes of eastern Nagaland – Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Phom, Sangtam, Tikhir, and Yimkhiung.
A three-member committee headed by Centre’s interlocutor A.K. Mishra, held talks with ENPO members earlier this year.
In his first visit to Mon ahead of the assembly election in February, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that the Centre stands with the people of eastern Nagaland, and a workable solution to their issues would be reached under the efforts of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party-Bharatiya Janata Party (NDPP-BJP) government led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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