3 years after ‘historic’ Naga Peace Accord, Nagaland urges Modi Govt to find solution to insurgency

In August, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi grandly announced that the Central Government had signed a framework agreement with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah) faction, which, the PM claimed, would bring India’s oldest insurgency to an end. The BJP proceeded to tom-tom the Naga Peace Accord as a major achievement of the Modi Government. The country, therefore, waited with bated breath to learn the details of this historic deal. Alarmed Chief Ministers of North-East states neighbouring Nagaland which should have been stakeholders in the negotiations, were blind sided by the surprise announcement of the accord and demanded to know the contours of the deal. However, over three years later, thanks to the BJP’s political compulsions in the north-east taking priority over Indian’s right to know, the terms of the Naga Peace Accord have still not been made public.

An indication that this so-called historic deal is turning out to be yet another jumla of the Modi Government, came on September 20, 2018 when all 60 MLAs cutting across party lines in the Nagaland Assembly adopted a resolution urging the Central Government "to make all out efforts to expeditiously bring about an honourable, acceptable and inclusive settlement" to the vexed Naga insurgency issue.

In its resolution, the lawmakers urged upon the government to "appreciate the fact that the Indo-Naga political issue is more than seven decades old and the very negotiations are continuing for around 21 years, and therefore urge upon it to make all out efforts to expeditiously bring about an honourable, acceptable and inclusive settlement."

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who is heading the People's Democratic Alliance (PDA) government of which the BJP is a part, tweeted on Thursday saying, “Today, all the 60 Members of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly consensually decided to reconstitute Joint Legislators' Forum on Naga Political Issue, to pursue the Naga political issue to its logical conclusion, with the Hon’ble Speaker as its Chairman”.

Rio noted that his government will play the role of active facilitator to the ongoing Naga peace process and the right of the Nagas to live as members of the same family under one administrative umbrella will never be given up.

"We have had a long period of struggle—more than 70 years, 21 years of negotiations since 1997 and 3 years since signing of the Framework Agreement—the expectations of the people are loud and clear. In spite of our political differences, it is our bounden duty as representatives of the people to come together and do our bit for facilitating early solution," Rio said.

With IANS inputs

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