Herald View: Can Modi, Muivah extricate the accord from the current mess?  

It has been a remarkable month of August in the 22-year-old peace talks between the Centre and the largest Naga armed group NSCN (IM). On August 14, NSCN (IM) chief Thuingaleng Muivah declared that Nagas would ‘co-exist’ but not ‘merge’ with India. The very next day Nagaland Governor RN Ravi, a former Intelligence officer who has also been the Centre’s interlocutor with the Nagas, also delivered a most remarkable Independence Day speech. Nagaland, said the Governor, was the worst performing state and added that vested interests had taken over the administration.

Earlier in June the Governor had written an equally unusual letter to the Nagaland chief minister, alleging that armed gangs were holding the state to ransom.It was apparently directed at NSCN (IM), which took offence and demanded that profiling of government servants in the state and identifying their links with various Naga insurgent groups be stopped. The NSCN (IM) also released on August 16 the text of the framework agreement that it had signed five years ago and to which Ravi, then just the interlocutor, was a signatory. The draft, kept confidential and under wraps for the last five years,curiously stated that India and the Nagas would ‘share’ sovereign power.

Two years later in 2017, however, the Government had signed another agreement with NNPG (Naga National Political Groups) in which New Delhi ‘recognised’ the right of Nagas for ‘self-determination’ within the framework of the Indian Constitution. NSCN(IM) now accuses the Government of India of pitting one group of Nagas against others and wants Ravi to be removed as the interlocutor. It cannot possibly be messier than this.

The Centre has been negotiating with various Naga Groups but primarily with NSCN (IM) since the ceasefire in 1997. While NSCN (IM) had been adamant on a separate Constitution and a separate flag on the lines of Jammu & Kashmir, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi triumphantly claimed in August, 2015 that the Government had signed a historic peace accord with the Nagas, it was widely presumed that the NSCN had been persuaded to drop the demands. While details of the accord were not released by the Government, the NSCN however claimed all along that New Delhi had conceded the twin demands for a flag and the Constitution, a claim which was denied by the Government. New Delhi then claimed that what was signed in August, 2015 was a framework agreement and that negotiations were continuing.

After withdrawing the special privileges enjoyed by Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 and taking away its flag and the Constitution, it is not surprising that the Modi Government finds it politically inexpedient to concede the same to Nagaland; and no matter how the Government glosses it over, by allowing Nagaland to fly its flag in ‘private’, non-official functions or by incorporating its ‘constitution’ into the Indian Constitution as another annexure, the parallel with J & K is too stark to ignore.

While there is little doubt that NSCN(IM) has been running a parallel administration in the state, Muivah’s grievance that New Delhi has been trying to divide the Nagas and corner NSCN may not also be entirely baseless. But between Modi and Muivah, and their conflicting claims, the peace process appears to have suffered a serious jolt. The question is whether they can regain each other’s trust and ensure durable peace.