Nagas ignore Delhi bid to update on peace process

Civil society and student groups boycot consultations with Deputy National Security Adviser R.N. Ravi.

Solution elusive: A file photo of a mass rally in Delhi demanding a solution to the Naga problem.

Civil society and student organisations in Nagaland have cold-shouldered the Centre’s bid to update the people on the progress made in the peace with Naga extremist groups.

These organisations boycotted consultations with Deputy National Security Adviser R.N. Ravi, who had visited the State on February 26 and 27, to drive home the point that they have had enough of waiting for a settlement to the protracted “Naga political problem.”

‘Waste of time’

The State’s apex tribal organisation, Naga Hoho, said meeting Mr. Ravi, also the interlocutor in the Naga peace talks, would have been a wastage of time. “There is a lack of political will for a comprehensive solution, which was assured in our last meeting. Taking part in another consultation would have been meaningless,” Naga Hoho president Chuba Ozukum said.

Mr. Ozukum said the Centre was testing the patience of the Nagas and in the process belittling the commitment to an early solution by President Ram Nath Kovind and Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya.

Naga Mothers’ Association and Naga Students’ Federation, two other influential organisations, also boycotted the consultations with Mr. Ravi. They said the Centre was not sincere about arriving at a permanent solution despite inking a Framework Agreement in August 2015.

However, representatives of the United Naga Tribes Association on Border Areas met Mr. Ravi and asked New Delhi to fulfil its promise made in the 9-Point Agreement in 1947 and 16-Point Agreement in 1960 to “bring back all the reserved forests and contiguous Naga areas to Naga people.” These areas, the association said, were transferred to Assam by the erstwhile British administration for making the Nagas join the Union of Independent India.

The Naga peace process began in August 1997 after the Centre signed a ceasefire agreement with the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland. Both sides have since held more than 90 rounds of talks in India and abroad.

Barring the Khaplang faction of the NSCN, Mr. Ravi was instrumental in bringing seven other extremist groups of the State to the talks table.