Anxiety in Nagaland over details of peace accord

Even as Nagaland Chief Minister T R Zeliang gave a clarion call to all groups to rise above “differences” and look forward to the Centre–NSCN(IM) peace deal, people are anxious about the nitty-gritty of the “framework of agreement”.

New Delhi and the NSCN (IM)leadership have maintained stoic silence over the details of the August 3 pact.

While there is a sense of happiness, euphoria is missing. In the busy and congested streets of Nagaland’s commercial capital Dimapur, it is business as usual. By the look of it , anyone coming from outside will get a feeling that Nagaland is perhaps not bothered with the much hyped peace deal, but the situation is not so in real sense. “There is enormous curiosity and anxiety at the same time in every households across Nagaland. The contours of the deal will decide our fate. It will be the beginning of a new chapter. Both the Centre and the NSCN(IM) leadership did not spill the beans leaving us confused. What is doing the arounds is speculations,” said R K Jain, a three generation non-Naga businessman in Dimapur.

The non-Naga community which is once labelled as migrants are keeping their finger crossed as the deal may bring trouble for them.For the Nagas, it is time for huddling into close door meetings. Sources said all the other underground factions, civil society bodies and political parties are busy having consultations. In the state capital Kohima, the government is also preparing itself to tackle any situation that may arise.

When contacted by Deccan Herald, some of the senior NSCN(IM) leaders who returned from New Delhi, refrained to speak on the issue, though they said that their first task is to brief their cadres on the developments at their General Headquarters — Camp Hebron — in the suburbs of Dimapur.

One unit of the NSCN(IM) with 50 cadres is still holed up in the Chittagong Hills Tracts of Bangladesh and the leadership is asking New Delhi to convince Dhaka to give “safe passage” for them to enter India, the outfit’s senior official said.

The rival NSCN factions have already started to target NSCN(IM) and the Centre.
“It is unfortunate and unpleasant politically for the Government of India to cheat and lie to the majority of Naga nationalist groups and the people who have been left behind and neglected,” the Naga National Council (NNC), one of the oldest underground groups in the state said in a statement.