Peace deals galore as Govt eyes development in NE
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: December 29, 2022 -

The Cessation of Operation (CoO) agreement signed by the Union and state governments with Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) on Tuesday not only underscores firm resolve of the government to promote peace for concentrating on development activities in the northeast but also demonstrates that the present regime has been making all out efforts to impress upon the remaining insurgent groups that shunning the path of violence would be a better option.

The ZUF's area of operation or activities has been generally limited to Tamenglong and Noney districts, but for chief minister N Biren the outfit's decision to return to the mainstream society is a huge success story as he has been the most vocal proponent of peace and development as is evident from his use of every platform and socio-religious and political event to ring out the message to the insurgents that they are steadily losing support of the masses.

The contributory causes for the insurgency movement in the northeast region are many including inconsistencies in history, economic structures, development and identity alienation.

It is also closely related to administrative weaknesses and incompetence, and above all official corruption that continually trample upon all sense of fair play and justice.

However, with notable decline in insurgency-related incidents for the past many years, the government's narratives that contemporary societies abhor violence as a means to reach any goal seem to be evoking positive response from the public while at the same time compelling leaders of armed groups to deeply introspect the wisdom of waging bush war.

For the past many decades, successive Indian governments had been trying to nationalise the political space in the northeast by pushing ahead with mainstreaming efforts in view of the outfits operating in the region continuing to create hurdles in the nation building process.

Such persistent endeavours of both the central and state governments seem to be reaping the fruit taking into account of the fact that recently there has been series of agreements entered with different armed organisations to end insurgency and boost development in the northeast in accordance with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make the region "insurgency free and prosperous".

Outfits unimpressed with the government's peace gesture might dismiss the pacts as entrapment and brand leaders who signed the agreement as betraying the ethnic people's trust but for the government success in convincing any outfit to accept the peace offer would be chronicled as a huge achievement and a victory of its pressure tactics.

No doubt, there are still scores of active armed organisations which have been ignoring consistent appeals to come to the negotiating table for ironing out the differences and posing threat to the national security but the government would be cherishing that the number of obstacles is now far less than the challenges it faced few years back.

The slew of peace deals also testifies that the government has been able to dilute the recurring narratives vis-a-vis insurgency movement in the region such as the demand for political autonomy, fighting economic injustice, and safeguarding cultural rights of the indigenes.