Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has expressed serious concern over the distrust between Government of India (GoI) and NNPGs Working Committee (WC) following the raid by security forces at the residence of NNC (parent body) general secretary and NNPGs WC co-convenor, V. Nagi’s house at Jotsoma on June 2.
In a statement its media cell, the council also supported the Working Committee’s move to suspend the peace talks till GoI gave a clarification on the matter, stressing that negotiation has to be “wholesome and not double standard”.
Although NTC maintained stoic silence in the past on incidents of raids at homes of few leaders in the hope that better sense would prevail on the part of security forces for the sake of peace in Nagaland and beyond, the relentless provocations, including the recent raid has ultimately created its share of distrust between GoI and Working Committee, the statement stressed.
NTC said it was perplexed how New Delhi applied the “carrot and stick policy” by provoking prominent leaders of NNPGs involved in peace talks through raids at their homes by security forces in the name of maintenance of law and order.
Asserting that everyone involved in the peace process deserved better treatment without doubting and undermining their positions, the council added that it did not understand how “bullying and provocative raids” could virtually pave way for sustainable peace in the region.
Further mentioning that NTC has been working all these while to see that nothing derails the peace process till the logical result is reached, the council urged GoI to come out with clear cut policy without any ambiguity whether it intends to fulfil its commitment to the negotiations and conclude them within a timeframe.
NTC also questioned the involvement of Nagaland Police in the raid, as reported in section of the local media. Knowing fully that such provocative action could hamper the process of negotiation, the participation of police is indeed dubious, the statement underlined.
Stating that all these years every successive State governments, including PDA, made repeated pledges to support the ongoing political negotiations between NNPGs and GoI, the council said Nagas deserved to know what was the stand of the State government vis-à-vis the raids.
Pointing out that ceasefire between GoI and few NNPGs has resulted in progress of the political negations, NTC stressed that the purpose of having ceasefire and political negotiations is to end the political turmoil rocking the entire Northeast for decades and bring about normalcy and peace to this part of the country.