Integration and sovereignty : Confusing agreement
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 12 2015 -
Territorial integration and sovereignty. Nothing confusing here.
And this is what the NSCN (IM) has been trumpeting for decades and more so after the framework agreement was signed between it and New Delhi on August 3.
The confusion however starts when the two parties start singing diametrically opposing tunes.
Nothing surprising here, for the framework agreement itself is a pact that has raised more questions than answers. And this is what is interesting and confusing as well.
Wonder how many in the Government of India actually know or understand what the framework agreement is all about.
The same question too applies to the people who the NSCN (IM) claims to represent.
There could be many reasons why Delhi and the top rung leaders of the NSCN (IM) have deemed it wiser to skip the details and instead tom tom the agreement as a landmark.
The air of mystery surrounding the agreement is precisely the reason why the Governments of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have cried foul over the manner in which they were ostensibly left out in the cold.
This again is one reason why The Sangai Express had asserted that keeping everything under wraps has the tendency to sow seeds of suspicion and uncertainty.
May not be exactly shadow boxing but the manner in which the NSCN (IM) and some of those representing the Government of India have been going hammer and tongs at each other comes close to shadow boxing !
In fact so confused was the overall scenario that nobody quite knew how to coin the agreement, with some calling it a ‘peace pact’ while others including The Sangai Express stuck by the safer, ‘framework agreement.’
This air of uncertainty has certainly come out in all its glory in the manner in which the NSCN (IM) has critiqued the statement of Nagaland Governor, PB Acharya for stating that the August 3 agreement did not have anything about sovereignty and integration of Naga inhabited areas.
Given the uncertainty and the mystery surrounding the August 3 agreement, it is hazardous to say which side of the two appears to be true, but this does not augur well for anyone, especially those who have a stake in the outcome but who have not been taken into confidence, such as Manipur.
Tough to say why everything has been done in such a hush-hush manner, but such an approach can always boomerang.
No sovereignty, no integration of Naga inhabited areas-this is the line that has been trumpeted by those in the Government of India but the outfit obviously seems to have a different take.
Just a few days after the agreement was inked a prominent newspaper in Nagaland carried an interview with senior NSCN (IM) functionary VS Atem, who did not rule out sovereignty.
Even NSCN (IM) supremo Th Muivah talked about ‘shared sovereignty’ though it is difficult to say what exactly this may mean.
The final word is yet to be said and it would be for the good of everyone not to shoot in the dark for such an approach can only add to the confusion and uncertainty.
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