Of peace accord,arrogance & inaction
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 08 2015 -

The recent outburst of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi accusing the Narendra Modi Government of being “arrogant” for not taking the Chief Ministers of three Congress ruled Northeastern States into confidence before signing the Naga peace accord came a little too late in the day.

Speaking to the media in Parliament complex, Sonia said she called her party’s Chief Ministers in the three States likely to be affected by the Naga accord and found out that they had no idea about the latest development.

She accused the Centre of not briefing these three Chief Ministers and slammed the Narendra Modi led Government for exhibiting “arrogance”.

She recalled how the Centre kept on stating that “everybody” would be consulted but its action was “an insult” to the federal structure of the country.

Despite the outburst of the Congress Chief, it was reported that Congress Chief Ministers like Tarun Gogoi of Assam and Nabam Tuki of Arunachal Pradesh had later welcomed the accord.

It was reported that Modi had also spoken to various leaders after the signing of peace accord between Government of India and NSCN (IM) including former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.

However, the Congress President should be reminded that the issue on hand goes beyond the confines of nationalised party politics.

A mere recognition of this fact should be the beginning for bringing about a permanent settlement to all political conflict.

If at all the Congress was so troubled with the likely fallout of the Naga accord, it should have made extra effort to be vigilant about every moves being made and shaped by New Delhi.

One aspect that all national political parties irrespective of ideological affiliations, seemed to have missed out while trying to corner the Modi Government was the subtle difference between “acting on an issue” and “sitting over the issue”.

If this fine line had been given adequate thought, it would have been any dispensation in New Delhi doing what has been done today.

Whether one likes it or not, the signing of the Naga accord was the culmination of over 80 rounds of negotiations since 1997 when the two entities - NSCN (IM) and Government of India formally agreed on cessation of all armed hostilities.

How certain hurdles are likely to spiked the implementation of the accord now largely depends on the wisdom of those who had steered the protracted negotiation.