Cold bucket of water after a hot shower ! Resignation of the year !
- Sangai Express Editorial :: December 16 , 2013 -

It will surely rank as the resignation of the year, if not for anything else, but for its timing. Just a few days before the political negotiations between the IM faction of the NSCN and the Government was set to resume, came the bombshell of the news that the Government interlocutor, Mr RS Pandey has joined the BJP.

The resumption of the talk has been eagerly anticipated and awaited by not only the Naga rebel outfit but also the Naga people as a whole for over a year and surely the resignation just a few days prior to its resumption must have come like a bucket of cold water after a hot shower.

The resignation of an interlocutor, appointed by the Government of the day may not have much of an impact on the outcome of the talk, but it will surely impact on the talk progress.

Throw in the recent admission made by the Joint Secretary of the Union Home Affairs and in charge of the North East, that the political negotiation is still at its infancy and things cannot get more confusing and uncertain than this. Governments will come and go and so too interlocutors, but the political negotiations will and should carry on.

Seen in this context, is the resignation of Mr RS Pandey as the interlocutor absolutely necessary ?

Why not let him continue in his position, outside the question of which political party is in power ?

If what the political pundits and opinion polls say comes true and a BJP led Government comes to power after the 2014 Lok Sabha election, will it not serve the interest of the country in having him as the interlocutor ?

Or is Mr Pandey an interlocutor of the Congress party or the Government of India, which the Congress happens to lead ?

This is where a line needs to be drawn.

Sure it is a political appointment, but it would be judicious on the part of the Congress party not to accept his resignation and let him continue as the interlocutor, if the Government is sincere in hammering out a solution to the decades old Naga political issue.

The talks may be problematic, as demonstrated time and again, but the time has come to proceed from ‘problem to issue‘. Naga issue and not Naga problem. This would be a fresh and positive approach to the issue at hand.

On the other hand, if the Congress does decide and accept the resignation of Mr Pandey, then there would arise a huge question mark over the talk which has been scheduled to resume from December 17.

Finding a suitable man to fill in the shoes of an interlocutor, doing the necessary home work to prepare for the talks, going back to the history of the peace process as well as the finer nuances of the talks are matters which cannot be understood in a few days time.

It was Mr Pandey’s personal decision to join the BJP and there should be no question over this.

Yet the need to resume the talk or dialogue which has been in a state of limbo for over a year is something which cannot be overemphasised.

Understandably, both the Congress and BJP, the two principal parties in the country must be more focused on the upcoming Lok Sabha election, but to let this come out at the public domain at the cost of the peace parley would definitely send out the wrong signal.

The best suggestion or course of action that the Congress can take at this moment would be to continue with Mr Pandey as the interlocutor, irrespective of his political affiliation.

After all, as pointed out earlier, the interlocutor should be seen and understood as a man representing the country and not any particular political party.

On the other hand, it may not seem as easy as it is, for the BJP and the Congress may have diametrically opposite viewpoints on the issue.

However one common thread that has not gone missing is the recent statement of Mr Shambhu Singh, that all stakeholders in the issue, that is Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland need to be involved in the process, a thought which falls perfectly in line with what former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said, when he addressed a public meeting at Kohima and said that the consensus of all the States is needed to bring about a solution.

Governments and interlocutors will come and go but there is something called policies, which are a continuum.