'Prolonged talks without solution to Naga issue making people restless'

Prolonged negotiations without any solution to the seven-decade-old Naga issue have made the community members "restless" and they are gradually "losing faith" in the central government, some Naga civil society members said today.

At a conference, convened by the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights, leaders of several Naga organisations said the dialogue between the NSCN-IM and the central government was going nowhere.

Leaders of Naga Hoho, United Naga Council, Naga Women Council, Naga Students Federation, All Naga Students Association of Manipur and Naga Mothers Association said the Naga people were getting restless as there had been no solution to the Naga issue even though the talk started in 1997 and a framework agreement was signed three years ago.

People are gradually losing faith in the central government, they said.

A framework agreement was signed on August 3, 2015 by NSCN-IM general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and the government's interlocutor R N Ravi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The framework agreement came after over 80 rounds of negotiations spanning 18 years, with the first breakthrough made in 1997 when the ceasefire agreement was sealed after decades of insurgency in Nagaland which started soon after India's Independence in 1947.

The NSCN-IM's key demand is to integrate Naga-inhabited areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur. But the BJP governments in the three states have strongly opposed it.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced on December 8, 2017 that the territorial integrity of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur would not be compromised while inking the final Naga peace accord.

However, the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) had in a statement on July 1 said the integration of all the Naga inhabited areas in the northeast was an integral part of the ongoing peace talks with the central government.