Those responsible for 'removal' of R N Ravi are to be blamed for delay in Naga Solution

Nirendra Dev *

The central government's peace emissary A K Mishra, a retired Intelligence Bureau official, has been meeting Naga rebel leaders from the NSCN-IM and the umbrella organisation,NNPG.

Amid these parleys which however have not been able to make any significant progress since 2019, a senior politician and a former Nagaland Assembly Speaker Z Lohe has made a veiled attack on the Neiphiu Rio-led NDPP-BJP government and especially the Chief Minister when he said, "Those who were responsible for the removal of the Interlocutor Mr. RN Ravi are indeed solely responsible for the delay of the Naga political solution".

In an article in a section of the local newspapers, Lohe said, "Ravi's removal (as Governor of Nagaland and interlocutor) became the greatest setback for a timely solution" to the oldest insurgency problem in the northeast.

Ravi during his tenure as Nagaland Governor had developed differences with Chief Minister Rioover the issue of involvement of Naga underground cadres in extortion and finally in September 2021Ravi was shunted out as the Governor of Tamil Nadu.

Rio heads the NDPP-BJP dispensation in Kohima since 2018 and the political grapevine is that the state government had lobbied hard in 2021 for the removal of Governor Ravi, who was appointed asInterlocutor for the Naga peace talks in 2014 soon after Narendra Modi took charge as the Prime Minister.

Lohe also wrote in his article that after Ravi was 'removed' to Tamil Nadu in the gubernatorial position; "the Govt of India had no mood to appoint another Interlocutor to succeed Mr R N Ravi. Consequently,the Naga negotiators placed themselves in an odd position as the rest of the political parleys had to be at the level of a mere emissary (A K Mishra) without political power and much below the status of the Interlocutor as we have asked for".

A K Mishra is a retired IB Joint Director and in present assisting the Home Ministry as Advisor, North East.Significant progress was made in the Naga peace parleys by October 2019 but things were first 'delayed' and then almost derailed.

The NSCN-IM led by mercurial Thuingaleng Muivah had inked a Framework Agreement with the then interlocutor in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Aug 3, 2015. At a later stage onNov 17, 2017, Ravi signed another pact called Agreed Position with the NNPG, an umbrella organisation of seven Naga militant outfits led by a rather 'pragmatic' N Kitovi Zhimomi.

Since October 2019 the Naga peace talks have almost stalled as the issues related to the Naga flag and a separate Naga constitution were raised by the NSCN-IM. The Govt of India has categorically rejected both the demands.

Lohe sought to blame the NSCN-IM for raising controversies around Art 371(A) -- the principal Constitutional provision which is a result of the 16 Point Agreement signed between Naga leaders and the Govt of India in the 1960s.

"Had there not been Art 371(A), there would never have been the Statehood of Nagaland. In other words, had there not been Art 371(A), Nagaland would have remained as a district in Assam till today," Lohe wrote.

"Whatever might have been the developmental infrastructures which are the assets of the public, the moveable/immoveable assets of the private individuals, the white collar or blue collar jobs by which people survive, and the regular funds that flow to Nagaland from Delhi are the sheer direct results of the Statehood of Nagaland".

Earlier this year, the NSCN (IM) has said that Article 371 (A), “no longer bears any political meaning as the historic Framework Agreement signed between the Nagas as represented by NSCN and Government of India on August 3, 2015 has come into existence to nullify all the past acts".

The announcement of Ceasefire and the starting of political talks as invited by the Government of India in 1997 had huge political implications, the NSCN-IM claimed “It was meant to make redundant the past political decisions and do away with factors extraneous to the Indo-Naga political issue,” it had stated in May this year.

Lohe also stated that similar assets, "both immoveable and moveable so owned by those of the cadres belonging to every group of Naga National Movement are the fruits being harvested by each individual from the State exchequer".

"So much material benefits have been accumulated by the Nagas including the Nagas from Manipur in the name of Naga Independent movement are the fruits of the Art 371(A)," he wrote.

"Had it not been the Art 371(A), such illegal and unabated taxations from the public would have been a mere wishful thinking had Nagaland remained a District in Assam."

Lohe also notes: "Years of observations proved that hardly few cadres stand for the genuine Naga political cause, and the rest are pseudo only befooling and exploiting the timid indigenous Nagas of Nagaland for their economic greed".

"Always taking advantage of the subservience of the locals of Nagaland, the cadres from Manipur in particular have the culture of exerting their diktat upon the indigenous Nagas who virtually become the secondary citizens in their own land. The Nagas from other States would not have wielded so much power had the State Govt. of Nagaland not been in league with them," he stated.

"Their inseparable partnership (the Nagaland Govt and a section of militats) has placed the indigenous citizens of Nagaland in dire straits. And as for the Nagas of Nagaland in particular, we are the victim of our own timidity and venality. As we declined to uphold and stand for the truth, we have been harvesting the fruit of our subservience. Sweet or bitter, this is the ground reality to speak the least."