A panel of Nagaland’s lawmakers on Friday asked the negotiating parties of the “Indo-Naga” political dialogue to resume the peace talks with a positive approach, setting aside the preconditions in the “greater interest of the people’s cry for long-term peace”.
The armed Naga groups have also been advised to hammer out their differences and come together for “one solution and one agreement”.
The peace process between New Delhi and two sets of the Naga extremist groups has been hanging fire for more than 23 years now. A final solution has been elusive because of the stand of the Naga groups, specifically the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) on a separate Naga flag and a separate Naga constitution.
While the NSCN (I-M), which has been in ceasefire mode since 1997, signed the nebulous Framework Agreement in August 2015, a conglomerate of at least six rival outfits called the Naga National Political Groups had inked the Agreed Position in November 2017.
“Appealing to the negotiating parties to set aside preconditions and resume the peace talks with a positive approach of mutual respect for each other was one of the resolutions taken at the meeting of the Parliamentary Core Committee on Naga Political Issue today (July 9),” Nagaland’s Revenue Minister and member-secretary of the panel, Neiba Kronu said.
The State’s Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio, is the convenor of the Parliamentary Committee formed on June 10. Deputy Chief Minister Y. Patton and former chief minister T.R. Zeliang are co-convenors. All 60 MLAs of the State are members of the committee.
“The core committee has appealed to all the Naga political groups to make serious efforts towards unity and reconciliation. The constant antagonism against each other is sending out a wrong message to the masses considering the fact that we are all pursuing the same aspiration of peace and political solution,” Mr. Kronu said, adding the groups should take the positive example set by the MLAs to rise above party affiliations for the Naga political issue.
The core committee, while appreciating the contributions of the churches, civil societies and NGOs towards facilitating peace and strengthening the peace process, appealed to them to make renewed efforts toward creating a conducive atmosphere for early realisation of a political solution by pursuing “unity, reconciliation and one agreement”.
Published - July 09, 2021 11:11 am IST
