Dimapur, March 23 (MExN): Expressing concern over the delay in resolving the Naga political issue, the Concerned Naga Forum of Nagaland (CNFN) has called upon the state government to “officially endorse” the two key agreements signed with the Centre and urged the Government of India to implement them without further delay.
At its General Body meeting held on March 21 at AIKO Green, Dimapur, the CNFN noted that despite the signing of the Framework Agreement with the NSCN (IM) in 2015 and the Agreed Position with the WC, NNPGs in 2017, no tangible solution has emerged. It pointed out that negotiations with the NSCN (IM) began 29 years ago, and that it has been 11 years and nine years respectively since the two accords were signed.
The forum further recalled that RN Ravi, the last interlocutor appointed by the Government of India and then Governor of Nagaland, had announced on the floor of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly in 2020 and 2021 that all negotiations had been completed on October 31, 2019, and that talks had been closed.
“Ever since, no interlocutor has been appointed, as the formal negotiation is over. The matter has not been raised nor discussed in the August house,” the CNFN said in a press release.
Against this backdrop, the CNFN criticised the recent move by the Political Affairs Committee of the state to “resume” or “upgrade” negotiations to a “political level”, describing it as a “devious ploy” to prolong the process indefinitely. “The very motive undermines the two agreements mutually signed between the GoI and the negotiators on behalf of the Nagas. Such an attempt is nothing less than to continue to cling to power or Chair and derail the solution to the Naga political problem,” the forum stated.
The CNFN also raised alarm over the proliferation of over 30 “factions” since the signing of the two agreements, which it said had led to a rise in violence and the emergence of a “neo modus operandi” involving syndicate systems and percentage-based extortion in public and private sectors.
It added that the common people of Nagaland were “groaning under legalised Mafia operation and institutionalised illegal taxation”, with the state’s economy stagnating while other northeastern states moved ahead.
“…under this pseudo peace, the people of Nagaland suffer from all-pervading despair, injustices, systematic corruption and unbearable socio-economic burden,” it added.
Urging the opposition-less government to “wake up from its slumber”, the CNFN called upon the state government to stop playing “hypocritical games detrimental to the welfare of the people of Nagaland and instead act as a practical facilitator.”
The forum urged upon the government “to become a practical facilitator and not resort to destructive theoretical rhetoric” adding, “this appeal is made in the understanding that the members of the August House are not ‘anti-solution’” and to take cognisance of the popular cry of the stakeholders.
The CNFN urged the state government to pass a resolution in the forthcoming assembly endorsing the two agreements, and implored the Government of India to immediately implement them and deliver the long-awaited political solution to the people without any further delay.
