WC, NNPGs has alleged that “the pre-mediated and pre-drafted” resolution of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) demanding appointment of new interlocutor at political level was nothing but another ploy to intentionally subvert and delay political solution.
Asserting that Centre’s former interlocutor RN Ravi was fully empowered by the Prime Minister Office (PMO) and held a cabinet status, WC, NNPGs in a press release maintained that the need for a new interlocutor did not arise since the interlocution phase was complete and AK Mishra had now been tasked by the Centre to fast-track solution.
Rather than resolving to urge the Central government to expedite solution on the basis of the concluded talks, the committee said demanding new interlocutor was nothing new, but to sabotage solution and drag the Indo-Naga political process back to square one.
As a constituent of India, it was also not the responsibility of the state government to demand for a change of interlocutor, the committee maintained. WC said it was a common knowledge that the Naga peace talks had officially concluded on October 31, 2019.
Preceding this, WC said that Ravi had on July 19, 2018 briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee (Rajya Sabha) quoting clause 3. 1. 4 of the report: “In 2015, the government reached an understanding with the NSCN (IM), which agreed for a settlement within Indian federation, with a special status.”
WC said Ravi had informed the committee that this was a departure from their earlier position of “with India, not within”, and the government called it Framework Agreement and signed it.
According to WC, NNPGs, there was no ambiguity and the official document agreed by both the parties itself clearly testified the nature and trajectory of the process as well as its conclusion.Thereafter, during the fifth session of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), Ravi, who was then a governor of Nagaland, informed the house on January 17, 2020 about the culmination of the entire process and declared the political talks as successfully concluded.
And while the final inking was on the verge, the WC, NNPGs alleged that chief minister Neiphu Rio along with NSCN (I-M) had vociferously demanded the removal of Ravi as Centre’s interlocutor, and the entire process was brought to a grinding halt.
Echoing the success of his move, Rio claimed during a meeting with the WC, NNPGs at Nagaland House, New Delhi in 2022 that the first major achievement of the PDA government was the successful removal of Ravi. Thus, the delay in implementation of the agreement(s) in their entirety was attributed to the hostile move of the incumbent state government led by Rio, which history would record for the posterity to judge.
The committee also wondered if the state government fully comprehended the meaning of “successfully concluded”, and also role and meaning of an Interlocutor when there was no more need for interlocution with the conclusion of the process.
The WC, NNPGs asked whether the state government had other agendas to be tabled and discussed besides the two signed agreements. If so, the committee said the government should bring it to public domain, rather than using subterfuge in the form of demanding new Interlocutor.
“Facilitator asserting to pave way for solution in its true sense must be to sincerely facilitate solution without further delay and not to diabolically delay solution with collusion of anti-solution elements,” the release stressed.
According to WC, NNPGs, the state-sponsored consultative meet adopting a contradictory resolution despite almost every participant emphasising early solution during an open discussion was purely mala fide in all its intent and purpose, meant to only promote anti-solution narrative.
Better late than never, the committee stressed that every stakeholder must ask who benefitted from the delay in political solution and what course of action must be pursued together to remove obstruction and clear the path for immediate political solution on the basis of mutually-signed agreement between the Centre and negotiating parties as endorsed by the people.