Naga insurgent group NSCN-IM rejects Centre’s offer for ‘cultural flag’

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM), the Naga insurgent group in ceasefire on Thursday stated that the Centre’s offer to accept the Naga flag as a “cultural flag” is “unthinkable” and its demand for recognition to Naga National Flag is non-negotiable.

“It is unthinkable for NSCN to accept Naga national flag as cultural flag as hinted by Government of India. Naga National Flag that symbolizes Naga political identity is not negotiable,” the NSCN-IM said in its mouthpiece, Nagalim Voice (May issue).

The outfit’s stand may jeopardise the Centre’s target to sign a “final agreement” with Naga groups before 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The Centre in August 2015 had signed a “framework Agreement” with NSCN-IM in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, based on which a final deal was to be signed.

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But NSCN-IM’s insistance on its “core demands” for a seperate flag and Constitution has delayed the process since then. The Centre had signed another preliminary agreement with Naga National Political Groups, a forum of seven other rebel groups, in 2017.

Sources said A K Mishra, the Centre’s new interlocutor had proposed that the Naga flag would be accepted as a “cultural flag” for finding a solution to the conflict. “Today, the NSCN is watching how the same Prime Minister of India is going to handle the Framework Agreement with NSCN and Naga people that he himself took so much pride and credit in,” said the mouthpiece.

Many Naga groups, including the NSCN-IM, claim that Nagas were never part of India and had even declared Independence on August 14, 1947 when the British left India.

The NSCN-IM, which has been leading an armed fight, signed a ceasefire in 1997 and its leaders and cadres are lodged in a camp at Hebron near Dimapur in Nagaland since then.