Naga talks: NSCN-IM says talks with Centre's new interlocutor failed to live up to the hype

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) on Saturday said the talks with the Centre's new interlocutor, A K Mishra, failed to live up to the hype it generated in September.

Talks with the Naga rebel group on ceasefire resumed on September 20 after nearly two years after the Centre recently replaced R N Ravi with Mishra as the new interlocutor. They had remained on hold due to the outfit's demand for a separate flag and a Constitution for the Nagas

Stating that the pressing concern of NSCN was on the two core issues of flag and Constitution, the outfit said in a statement on Saturday evening, "However, the talks failed to live up to all the hype as the Government of India continues to indulge in political escapism on the very issues that is holding up the road to the Naga solution."

Also Read | NSCN-IM firm on separate flag, constitution; NNPG holds talk with GoI pointsman on Naga issue

"It is pertinent to recall that when the Government of India officially recognised the unique history and situation of the Nagas in 2002, the political interpretation is no less than the recognition of the political identity of the Naga nation. Significantly, this put a new meaning to the Indo-Naga political talks that ultimately led to the signing of the historic Framework Agreement on the August 3, 2015 giving due recognition to the sovereign identity of the Naga nation. Ironically, the Government of India is still pretentiously acting stubborn as the crucial rounds of talks that focused on the Naga flag and the Constitution is driven to hang in balance. The stalemate created is unfortunate," it said.

Categorically rejecting the Centre's offer to allow the use of the Naga flag in cultural events, NSCN-IM said, "Needless to say, the Naga flag is not just a piece of cloth to the Nagas but a feeling of pride which helped hundreds of Naga martyrs to sacrifice their lives by just seeing the flag flying high in the sky. Interestingly, the Government of India is talking in a different language to different negotiating Naga groups in the matter of the Naga flag. But NSCN is not impressed when the offer was made to accept the Naga flag as a cultural symbol. The Naga issue is not a cultural issue that the Government of India should change the Naga flag as a cultural symbol and forego the Naga political identity as symbolised by the Naga flag. Where is the need for the Indo-Naga ceasefire if the Naga issue is a cultural problem and where is the need to drag on the Indo-Naga talks for more than two decades if the issue is something to do to solve cultural conflicts?" it asked.

Also read: Sort out differences, find solution to Naga issue at earliest: Nagaland govt to Centre, NSCN(IM)

Many Naga groups including the NSCN-IM claim that Nagas were never part of India and had even declared "independence" on August 14, 1947. The state has witnessed insurgency since then till the NSCN-IM entered ceasefire in 1997.

The NSCN-IM signed a "framework agreement" in August 2015 and the NNPG, a forum of seven other rebel groups also signed another agreement in November 2017. A "final and comprehensive agreement" was supposed to be signed to end the country's oldest insurgency. The Centre wants to sign one and final agreement with the Naga groups before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls but the NSCN-IM's insistence on the flag and the Constitution issue continuous to remain a stumbling block.

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